ro 
en 


Number  32 


QQML— 

~THE  GETTYSBURG 

SPEECH 
AND  OTHER  PAPERS 

BY 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

LOWELL'S   ESSAY    ON 
LINCOLN 

AND 

WHITMAN'S    O    CAP 
TAIN!  MY  CAPTAIN! 

WITH  NOTES   AND  PROGRAMMES 
FOR  LINCOLN'S    BIRTHDAY 


HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN    COMPANY 


IFFLI 
ORK. 


BOSTON,   NEW  YORK.  AND  CHICAGO 


press  £auibriDge 


_._ 

t*S£'Jj4t..-''    •*•  -^wv^V V \.V^V Vv-v^A.^-v'vyy.rv^^ f ftffmJUJrt 


Price,  paper,  15  cents;  linen,  in  one  volume  with  No.  133,  40  cents 


Literature  Aeries 

All  prices  are  net,  postpaid. 

1.  Longfellow's   Evangeline.    Paper,  .15 ;   linen,  .25.    NOB.  1,  4,  and  30,  one  vol 

linen,  .50. 

2.  Longfellow's  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish ;  Elizabeth.   Paper,  .15  ;  Imtn,  .25. 

3.  A  Dramatization  of  The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish.    Paper,  .15. 

4.  Whittier's  Snow-Bound,  etc.    Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

5.  Whittier's  Mabel  Martin,  etc.    Paper,  .15.    Nos.  4,  5,  one  vol.,  Knew,  .40 

6.  Holmes's    Grandmother's    Story  of   Bunker   Hill   Battle,  etc.     Paper,  .15 : 

linen,  .25.    Nos.  6,  31,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

7.  8,  9.  Hawthorne's  Grandfather's  Chair.    In  three  parts.    Each,  paper,  .15.    NOB.  7, 

8, !»,  complete,  one  vol.,  linen,  .50. 

10.  Hawthorne's  Biographical  Series.    Paper,  .15 ;  linen,  .25.    Nos.  29,  10,  one  vol 

linen,  .40. 

11.  Longfellow's  Children's  Hour,  etc.     Paper,  15.    Nos.  11,  63,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

12.  Outlines  —  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Holmes,  and  Lowell.  Paper,  .15. 

13.  14.  Longfellow's  Song  of  Hiawatha.    In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .15.    Nos.  13,  14 

complete,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

15.  Lowell's  Under  the  Old  Elm,  etc.    Paper,  .15. 

16.  Bayard  Taylor's  Lars.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

17, 18.  Hawthorne's  Wonder-Book.  In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .15.  NOB.  17,  IS,  com 
plete,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

19,  20.  Franklin's  Autobiography.  In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .15.  NOB.  19,  20,  com 
plete,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

21    Franklin's  Poor  Richard's  Almanac,  etc.    Paper,  .15. 

22,  23.  Hawthorne's  Tanglewood  Tales.  In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .15.  NOB.  22,  23, 
one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

24.  Washington's  Farewell  Addresses,  etc.    I'aper,  .15  ,  linen,  .25. 

25,  26.  Longfellow's  Golden  Legend.    One  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

27.  Thoreau's  Forest  Trees,  etc.    I'aper,  .15.    Nos.  2S,  37, 27,  one  vol.,  linen,  .50. 

28.  Burroughs's  Birds  and  Bees.     Paper,  .15.    NOB.  28,  36,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

29.  Hawthorne's  Little  Daffydowndilly,  etc.    J'aptr,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

30.  Lowell's  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,  etc.     I'aper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

31.  Holmes's  My  Hunt  after  the  Captain,  etc.    Paper,  .15. 

32.  Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Speech,  etc.    Paper,  .15.    Nos.  133,  32,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 
33,34,35.   Longfellow's  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn.    In  three  parts,  each,  paper,  .15 

Nos.  33,  34,  35,  complete,  one  vol.,  linen,  .50. 

36.  Burroughs's  Sharp  Eyes,  etc.    Paper,  15  ;  linen,  .25. 

37.  Warner's  A- Hunting  of  the  Deer,  etc.    Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

38.  Longfellow's  Building  of  the  Ship,  etc.     I'aper,  .15. 

39.  Lowell's  Books  and  Libraries,  etc.     Paper,  .15. 

40.  Hawthorne's  Tales  of  the  White  Hills,  etc.   Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25     Nos.  40,  69. 

one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

41.  Whittier's  Tent  on  the  Beach,  etc.    Paper,  .15. 

42.  Emerson's  Fortune  of  the  Republic,  etc.     Paper,  15. 

43.  Ulysses  among  the  Phaeacians.    BKYANT.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

44.  Edgeworth's  Waste  not.  Want  Not,  etc.    Paper,  .15. 

45.  Maeaulay's  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

46.  Old  Testament  Stories  in  Scripture  Language.     I'aper,  .15. 

47,48.  Scudder's  Fables  and  Folk  Stories.    In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .15     Nos.  47, 

48,  complete,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 
49, 50.  Andersen's  Stories.   In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .15.    Nos.  4!l,  50,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

51.  Irving's  Rip  Van  "Winkle,  etc.     Paper,  .15. 

52.  Irving's  The  Voyage,  etc.    Paper,  .15.    Nos.  51,  52,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

53.  Scott's   Lady  of  the    Lake.     Paper,  .30.     Also,    in   Rolf  ft   Students'1  Series,  to 

Teaehers,  .58. 

54.  Bryant's  Thanatopsis,  etc.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .'-'5. 

55.  Shakespeare's  Merchant  of  Venice.     Paper,  .15;  linen,  .25. 

56.  Webster's  First  Bunker  Hill  Oration,  etc.    Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

57.  Dickens's  Christinas  Carol.    Paper,  .15;  linen,  .25. 

58.  Dickens's  Cricket  on  the  Hearth.     I'aper,  .15.    Nos.  57,  58,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

59.  Verse  and  Prose  for  Beginners  in  Reading.   Paper.  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

60.  61.  Addison  and  Steele's  The  Sir  Roger  de  Co^erley  Papers.    In  two  parts. 

Each,  paper.  .15.     Nos.  60,  61,  one  vol.,  limn.  .4D. 

62.  Fiske's  War  of  Independence.     Paper,  .30  ;  linen,  .40. 

63.  Longfellow's  Paul  Revere's  Ride,  etc.    Paper,  .15. 

64.  65,  66.   Lambs'  Tales  from  Shakespeare.    In  three  parts,  each,  paper,  .15.    Nos.  64, 

65,  tiii,  one  vol.,  linen,  ..50. 

67.  Shakespeare's  Julius  Caesar.    Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25, 

68.  Goldsmith's  Deserted  Village,  etc.     Paper,  .15  ;  line,,.  .25. 

69.  Hawthorne's  The  Old  Manse,  etc.    Paper,  .15.    NOB.  40,  61),  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

70.  A  Selection  from  Whittier's  Child  Life  in  Poetry.    I'aper,  .15. 

71.  A  Selection  from  Whittier's  Child  Life  in  Prose.    I'aper,  .15.    NOB  70,  71,  one 

vol.,  litu  n,  .in. 

72.  Milton's  Minor  Poems.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25.    NOB.  72,  94,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 

73.  Tennyson's  Enoch  Arden,  etc.     I'aper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

74.  Gray's  Elegy,  etc. ;  Cowper's  John  Gilpin,  etc.     I'aper,  .15. 

75.  Scudder's  George  Washington.     Paper,  .3D  :  linen,  .ID. 

1(\.  Wordsworth's  On  the  Intimations  of  Immortality,  etc.     Paper, .  15;  linen,  .25. 

77.  Burns's  Cotter's  Saturday  Night,  etc.    Paper,  .1", ;  linen,  .25. 

7«.  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefteld.     Paper,  .30  ;  linen,  .40. 

7!».  Lamb's  Old  China,  etc.     I'aper,  .15. 

80.  Coleridge's    Ancient   Mariner,   etc.  ;    Campbell's     Lochiel's  Warning,   etc. 

I'aper,  .15  ;  linen,  .2/>. 

81.  Holmes's  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table.    Paper,  .45  ;  linen,  .50. 


Ktoersfoe  ^Literature 


THE    GETTYSBURG   SPEECH 

AND  OTHER  PAPERS 

BY 

ABEAHAM  LINCOLN 
LOWELL'S  ESSAY  ON  LINCOLN 

AND 

WHITMAN'S  0  CAPTAIN!  MY  CAPTAIN! 


WITH  NOTES  AND  PROGRAMMES  FOR 
LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 


HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

Boaton:  4  Park  Street;  New  York  :  85  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  378-388  Wabash  Avenue 

(€be  ltilirr0iDc  prcsu  Cambridge 


COPYRIGHT,  1871,  BV  JAMES   RUSSELL  LOWELL 
COPYRIGHT,  188S,  BY    HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   &   CO. 
COPYRIGHT,  1899,  BY   MABEL   LOWELL   BURNETT 

ALL   RIGHTS  RESERVED 


PREFACE. 


IT  is  still  too  early  to  know  Abraham  Lincoln,  but 
it  is  none  too  soon  to  use  such  knowledge  as  we  have 
for  adding  to  our  conception  of  him,  and  for  shaping 
our  praise  and  honor.  He  lived  so  openly  among  men, 
and  he  was  surrounded  by  such  a  mass  of  eager,  posi 
tive  men  and  women  in  a  time  when  the  mind  of  man 
was  especially  alert,  he  was  so  much  the  object  of  criti 
cism  and  of  eulogy,  and  above  all  he  was  himself  a 
man  of  such  varied  attitude  toward  other  men,  that, 
we  are  likely  for  years  to  come  to  have  an  increasing 
volume  of  testimony  concerning  him. 

Meanwhile  there  is  slowly  taking  form  in  the 
general  apprehension  of  men  a  figure  so  notable,  so 
individual,  so  powerful,  that  men  everywhere  are  rec 
ognizing  the  fact,  that  however  other  Americans  may 
be  regarded,  there  is  one  man  who  holds  the  interest, 
the  profound  respect,  and  the  affection  of  the  people 
as  none  other  has  yet  done.  Franklin  has  been  widely 
influential,  but  he  has  not  appealed  to  the  highest 
spirit.  He  does  not  invite  reverence,  and  only  he  is 
truly  great  to  whom  we  look  up.  Washington  has  a 
place  by  himself,  so  aloof  from  other  men,  that  with 
all  our  efforts  we  cannot  perfectly  succeed  in  human 
izing  him,  but  are  content  to  leave  him  heroic.  Jack 
son  is  the  idol  of  a  party ;  but  Lincoln,  appearing  at  a 
critical  period,  and  showing  himself  a  great  leader,  is 

476443 


4  PREFACE. 

so  humane^  lie  comes  so  close  to  the  eye,  his  homely 
nature  seems  so  familiar,  that  every  one  makes  him  a 
personal  acquaintance.  He  had  detractors  during  his 
lifetime;  there  are  a  few  now  who  are  repelled  by 
some  characteristics  of  the  man,  but  his  death  did 
much  to  hallow  his  memory,  and  the  emphatic  testi 
mony  of  poets  and  statesmen,  who  are  quick  to  recog 
nize  their  peers  and  their  superiors,  has  been  accumu 
lating  an  expression  of  feeling  which  represents  the 
common  sentiment  that  has  never  been  absent  from 
the  minds  of  plain  people.  ^ 

Every  year  the  anniversary  of  Lincoln's  birth  is 
likely  to  have  increased  honor :  its  nearness  to  Wash 
ington's  birthday  is  likely  to  cause  a  joint  celebration 
of  the  two  great  Americans.  Both  then  and  at  other 
times,  Lincoln's  career  will  be  studied,  and  this  pam 
phlet  is  put  forth  as  a  modest  aid  to  those  who  desire 
some  brief  handbook.  It  contains  as  an  introduction 
the  important  essay  by  James  Russell  Lowell,  who  was 
one  of  the  earliest,  and  he  has  been  the  most  persistent, 
of  American  scholars  to  recognize  the  greatness  and 
the  peculiar  power  of  Lincoln.  Lowell's  own  sympa 
thy  with  the  soil  quickened  his  apprehension  of  sons 
of  the  soil.  As  a  tail-piece,  so  to  speak,  it  has  the 
threnody  by  Walt  Whitman,  one  of  the  notable  bits 
of  verse  called  out  by  Lincoln's  death,  and  so  rhyth 
mical,  so  charged  with  feeling,  that  one  scarcely  ob 
serves  the  almost  random  use  of  rhyme,  —  it  all  seems 
rhymed ;  nor  does  one  resent  what  on  close  inspection 
might  seem  an  arrogant  assumption  of  the  poet's  indi 
vidual  grief,  for  every  one  will  feel  that  he  is  himself 
a  solitary  mourner  for  the  dead  captain. 

The  body  of  the  pamphlet  is  occupied  with  a  few  of 
the  most  striking  speeches,  messages,  and  letters  of  the 


I 

PRE1  ACE.  5 

President.  It  would  be  easy  to  increase  the  number, 
but  these  will  be  found  significant  of  Lincoln's  char 
acter  and  political  policy.  Introductions  and  notes 
have  been  added  wherever  it  seemed  desirable  to  make 
the  matter  clearer.  But  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  our 
schools  will  take  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  great 
mass  of  material  easily  accessible  to  acquaint  them 
selves  in  detail  with  Lincoln's  life. 

In  order  to  aid  teachers  and  scholars  in  this  work, 
we  have  added  to  the  pamphlet  some  pages  which  give 
suggestions  for  the  celebration  of  Lincoln's  birthday, 
a  brief  chronology  of  the  leading  events  in  his  life, 
and  a  sketch  of  the  material  which  is  at  the  service  of 
every  one  for  carrying  on  a  study  of  this  most  inter 
esting  and  important  subject.  No  one  can  apply  him 
self  carefully  to  an  inquiry  into  Lincoln's  life  in  its 
whole  course  without  acquainting  himself  with  the 
most  vital  principles  of  American  national  life.  He 
must  study  the  democratic  social  order,  the  slavery 
conflict,  and  the  war  for  the  Union.  It  is  greatly  to  be 
hoped  that  the  growing  interest  in  American  histoiy, 
and  the  increasing  attention  paid  to  the  investigating 
rather  than  the  mere  memorizing  method  of  study, 
will  tend  to  give  a  conspicuous  place  to  the  biography 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  :  AN  ESSAY  BY  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  .  7 

MR  LINCOLN'S  SPEECHES,  PAPERS,  AND  LETTERS 

I.  The  Gettysburg  Speech 37 

II.  The  First  Inaugural  Address 40 

III.  Letter  to  Horace  Greeley 53 

IV.  Reply  to  a  Committee 54 

V.  The  Emancipation  Proclamation 59 

VI.  Account  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation          .         .  62 

VII.  Letter  to  Dissatisfied  Friends 65 

VIII.  Proclamation  appointing  a  National  Fast  Day     .         .  71 
IX.  Announcement  of  News  from  Gettysburg        .         .         .73 

X.  Letter  to  A.  G.  Hodges 74 

XI.  The  Second  Inaugural  Address 77 

XII.  Speech  in  Independence  Hall       .....  80 

XIIL  Last  Public  Address 82 

O  CAPTAIN  !  MY  CAPTAIN.     By  WALT  WHITMAN  ...  89 

LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY 

Materials  for  Sketch  of  Lincoln's  Life 91 

Programmes ,        .        .  95 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.1 

BY  JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 


|  THERE  have  been  many  painful  crises  since  the  im 
patient  vanity  of  South  Carolina  hurried  ten  prosper 
ous  Commonwealths  into  a  crime  whose  assured  retri 
bution  was  to  leave  them  either  at  the  mercy  of  the 
nation  they  had  wronged,  or  of  the  anarchy  they  had 
summoned  but  could  not  control,  when  no  thoughtful 
American  opened  his  morning  paper  without  dreading 
to  find  that  he  had  no  longer  a  country  to  love  and 
honor.  Whatever  the  result  of  the  convulsion  whose 
first  shocks  were  beginning  to  be  felt,  there  would  still 
be  enough  square  miles  of  earth  for  elbow-room  ;  but 
that  ineffable  sentiment  made  up  of  memory  and 
hope,  of  instinct  and  tradition,  which  swells  every 
man's  heart  and  shapes  his  thought,  though  perhaps 
never  present  to  his  consciousness,  would  be  gone 
from  it,  leaving  it  common  earth  and  nothing  more. 
Men  might  gather  rich  crops  from  it,  but  that  ideal 
harvest  of  priceless  associations  would  be  reaped  no 
longer ;  that  fine  virtue  which  sent  up  messages  of 
courage  and  security  from  every  sod  of  it  would  have 
evaporated  beyond  recall.  "We  should  be  irrevocably 

1  This  paper  was  published  by  Mr.  Lowell  originally  in  the  North 
American  Review  for  January,  1864.  When  he  reprinted  it  in  his  vol- 
Time,  My  Study  Windows,  he  added  the  final  paragraph. 


8  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cut  otf  from  our  past,  and  be  forced  to  splice  the 
ragged  ends  of  our  lives  upon  whatever  new  conditions 
chance  might  leave  dangling  for  us. 

2^  We  confess  that  we  had  our  doubts  at  first  whether 
the  patriotism  of  our  people  were  not  too  narrowly 
provincial  to  embrace  the  proportions  of  national 
peril.  We  felt  an  only  too  natural  distrust  of  im 
mense  public  meetings  and  enthusiastic  cheers. 

That  a  reaction  should  follow  the  holiday  enthusi 
asm  with  which  the  war  was  entered-on,  that  it  should 
follow  soon,  and  that  the  slackening  of  public  spirit 
should  be  proportionate  to  the  previous  over-tension, 
might  well  be  foreseen  by  all  who  had  studied  human 
nature  or  history.  Men  acting  gregariously  are  al 
ways  in  extremes ;  as  they  are  one  moment  capable  of 
higher  courage,  so  they  are  liable,  the  next,  to  baser 
depression,  and  it  is  often  a  matter  of  chance  whether 
numbers  shall  multiply  confidence  or  discouragement. 
Nor  does  deception  lead  more  surely  to  distrust  of 
men,  than  self-deception  to  suspicion  of  principles. 
The  only  faith  that  wears  well  and  holds  its  color  in 
all  weathers  is  that  which  is  woven  of  conviction  and 
set  with  the  sharp  mordant  of  experience.  Enthusi 
asm  is  good  material  for  the  orator,  but  the  statesman 
needs  something  more  durable  to  work  in,  —  must  be 
able  to  rely  on  the  deliberate  reason  and  consequent 
firmness  of  the  people,  without  which  that  presence  of 
mind,  no  less  essential  in  times  of  moral  than  of  ma 
terial  peril,  will  be  wanting  at  the  critical  moment. 
Would  this  fervor  of  the  Free  States  hold  out  ?  Was 
it  kindled  by  a  just  feeling  of  the  value  of  constitu 
tional  liberty  ?  Had  it  body  enough  to  withstand  the 
inevitable  dampening  of  checks,  reverses,  delays? 
Had  our  population  intelligence  enough  to  comprehend 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  & 

that  the  choice  was  between  oi*4er  4nd  #na*ch^  be-r 
tween  the  equilibrium  of  a  government  by  law  and 
the  tussle  of  misrule  by  pronunciamicnto  ?  Could  a 
war  be  maintained  without  the  ordinary  stimulus  of 
hatred  and  plunder,  and  with  the  impersonal  loyalty 
of  principle  ?  These  were  serious  questions,  and  with 
no  precedent  to  aid  in  answering  them.  I 

Lf.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  was,  indeed,  oc 
casion  for  the  most  anxious  apprehension.  A  Presi 
dent  known  to  be  infected  with  the  political  heresies, 
and  suspected  of  sympathy  with  the  treason,  of  the 
Southern  conspirators,  had  just  surrendered  the  reins, 
we  will  not  say  of  power,  but  of  chaos,  to  a  successor 
known  only  as  the  representative  of  a  party  whose 
leaders,  with  long  training  in  opposition,  had  none  in 
the  conduct  of  affairs  ;  an  empty  treasury  was  called 
on  to  supply  resources  beyond  precedent  in  the  history 
of  finance  ;  the  trees  were  yet  growing  and  the  iron 
unmined  with  which  a  navy  was  to  be  built  and  ar 
mored  ;  officers  without  discipline  were  to  make  a 
mob  into  an  army ;  and,  above  all,  the  public  opinion 
of  Europe,  echoed  and  reinforced  with  every  vague 
hint  and  every  specious  argument  of  despondency  by 
a  powerful  faction  at  home,  was  either  contemptuously 
sceptical  or  actively  hostile.  It  would  be  hard  to 
over-estimate  the  force  of  this  latter  element  of  disin 
tegration  and  discouragement  among  a  people  where 
every  citizen  at  home,  and  every  soldier  in  the  field, 
is  a  reader  of  newspapers.  The  pedlers  of  rumor  in 
the  North  were  the  most  effective  allies  of  the  rebel 
lion.  A  nation  can  be  liable  to  no  more  insidious 
treachery  than  that  of  the  telegraph,  sending  hourly 
its  electric  thrill  of  panic  along  the  remotest  nerves 
of  the  community,  till  the  excited  imagination  makes 


lO  ^ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


ery[ real  danger taom  heightened  with  its  unreal 
double. 

And  even  if  we  look  only  at  more  palpable  difficul 
ties,  the  problem  to  be  solved  by  our  civil  war  was  so 
vast,  both  in  its  immediate  relations  and  its  future 
consequences  ;  the  conditions  of  its  solution  were  so 
intricate  and  so  greatly  dependent  on  incalculable  and 
uncontrollable  contingencies  ;  so  many  of  the  data, 
whether  for  hope  or  fear,  were,  from  their  novelty, 
incapable  of  arrangement  under  any  of  the  categories 
of  historical  precedent,  that  there  were  moments  of 
crisis  when  the  firmest  believer  in  the  strength  and 
sufficiency  of  the  democratic  theory  of  government 
might  well  hold  his  breath  in  vague  apprehension  of 
disaster.  Our  teachers  of  political  philosophy,  sol 
emnly  arguing  from  the  precedent  of  some  petty  Gre 
cian,  Italian,  or  Flemish  city,  whose  long  periods  of 
aristocracy  were  broken  now  and  then  by  awkward 
parentheses  of  mob,  had  always  taught  us  that  democ 
racies  were  incapable  of  the  sentiment  of  loyalty,  of 
concentrated  and  prolonged  effort,  of  far-reaching 
conceptions  ;  were  absorbed  immaterial  interests ;  im 
patient  of  regular,  and  much  more  of  exceptional  re 
straint  ;  had  no  natural  nucleus  of  gravitation,  nor  any 
forces  but  centrifugal ;  were  always  on  the  verge  of 
civil  war,  and  slunk  at  last  into  the  natural  almshouse 
of  bankrupt  popular  government,  a  military  despotism,, 
Here  was  indeed  a  dreary  outlook  for  persons  who 
knew  democracy,  not  by  rubbing  shoulders  with  h 
lifelong,  but  merely  from  books,  and  America  only 
by  the  report  of  some  fellow-Briton,  who,  having 
eaten  a  bad  dinner  or  lost  a  carpet-bag  here,  had 
written  to  The  Times  demanding  redress,  and  drawing 
a  mournful  inference  of  democratic  instability.  Nor 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  11 

were  men  wanting  among  ourselves  who  had  so 
steeped  their  brains  in  London  literature  as  to  mis 
take  Cockneyism  for  European  culture,  and  contempt 
of  their  country  for  cosmopolitan  breadth  of  view,  and 
who,  owing  all  they  had  and  all  they  were  to  demo 
cracy,  thought  it  had  an  air  of  high-breeding  to  join  in 
the  shallow  epicediuin  that  our  bubble  had  burst. 

But  beside  any  disheartening  influences  which  might 
affect  the  timid  or  the  despondent,  there  were  reasons 
enough  of  settled  gravity  against  any  over-confidence 
of  hope.  A  war  —  which,  whether  we  consider  the 
expanse  of  the  territory  at  stake,  the  hosts  brought 
into  the  field,  or  the  reach  of  the  principles  involved, 
may  fairly  be  reckoned  the  most  momentous  of  mod. 
ern  times  —  was  to  be  waged  by  a  people  divided  at 
home,  unnerved  by  fifty  years  of  peace,  under  a  chief 
magistrate  without  experience  and  without  reputation, 
whose  every  measure  was  sure  to  be  cunningly  ham 
pered  by  a  jealous  and  unscrupulous  minority,  and 
who,  while  dealing  with  unheard-of  complications  at 
home,  must  soothe  a  hostile  neutrality  abroad,  waiting 
only  a  pretext  to  become  war.  All  this  was  to  be 
done  without  warning  and  without  preparation,  while 
at  the  same  time  a  social  revolution  was  to  be  accom 
plished  in  the  political  condition  of  four  millions  of 
people,  by  softening  the  prejudices,  allaying  the  fears, 
and  gradually  obtaining  the  cooperation,  of  their  un 
willing  liberators.  Surely,  if  ever  there  were  an 
occasion  when  the  heightened  imagination  of  the  his 
torian  might  see  Destiny  visible  intervening  in  human 
affairs,  here  was  a  knot  worthy  of  her  shears.  Never, 
perhaps,  was  any  system  of  government  tried  by  so 
continuous  and  searching  a  strain  as  ours  during  the 
last  three  years ;  never  has  any  shown  itself  stronger ; 


12  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and  never  could  that  strength  be  so  directly  traced  to 
the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  the    people,  —  to  that 
general  enlightenment  and  prompt  efficiency  of  public 
opinion  possible  only  under  the  influence  of  a  political 
framework  like  our  own.     We  find  it  hard  to  under 
stand  how  even  a  foreigner   should  be  blind  to  the 
grandeur  of  the  combat  of  ideas  that  has  been  going 
on  here,  —  to  the  heroic  energy,  persistency,  and  self- 
reliance  of  a  nation  proving  that  it  knows  how  much 
dearer  greatness  is  than  mere  power  ;  and  we  own  that 
it   is  impossible  for  us   to  conceive  the  mental  and 
moral  condition  of  the  American  who  does  not  feel 
his  spirit  braced    and   heightened   by  being   even  a 
spectator  of  such  qualities  and  achievements.     That  a 
steady  purpose  and  a  definite  aim  have  been  given  to 
the  jarring  forces  which,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
spent  themselves  in  the  discussion  of  schemes  which 
could  only  become  operative,  if  at  all,  after  the  war 
was  over ;  that  a  popular  excitement  has  been  slowly 
intensified  into  an  earnest  national  will ;  that  a  some 
what  impracticable  moral  sentiment  has  been  made 
the  unconscious  instrument  of  a  practical  moral  end ; 
that  the   treason   of  covert  enemies,  the  jealousy  of 
rivals,  the  unwise  zeal  of  friends,  have  been  made  not 
only  useless  for  mischief,  but  even  useful  for  good ; 
that  the  conscientious  sensitiveness  of  England  to  the 
horrors  of  civil  conflict  has  been  prevented  from  com 
plicating  a  domestic  with  a  foreign  war ;  —  ail  these 
results,  any  one  of  which  might  suffice  to  prove  great 
ness  in  a  ruler,  have  been  mainly  due  to  the  good 
sense,  the  good-humor,  the  sagacity,  the  large-minded- 
ness,  and  the  unselfish  honesty  of  the  unknown  man 
whom  a  blind  fortune,  as  it  seemed,  had  lifted  from 
the  crowd  to  the  most  dangerous  and  difficult  eminence 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  13 

of  modern  times.  It  is  by  presence  of  mind  in 
untried  emergencies  that  the  native  metal  of  a  man  is 
tested ;  it  is  by  the  sagacity  to  see,  and  the  fearless 
honesty  to  admit,  whatever  of  truth  there  may  be  in 
an  adverse  opinion,  in  order  more  convincingly  to 
expose  the  fallacy  that  lurks  behind  it,  that  a  reasoner 
at  length  gains  for  his  mere  statement  of  a  fact  the 
force  of  argument ;  it  is  by  a  wise  forecast  which 
allows  hostile  combinations  to  go  so  far  as  by  the  in 
evitable  reaction  to  become  elements  of  his  own  power, 
that  a  politician  proves  his  genius  for  state-craft ;  and 
especially  it  is  by  so  gently  guiding  public  sentiment 
that  he  seems  to  follow  it,  by  so  yielding  doubtful 
points  that  he  can  be  firm  without  seeming  obstinate 
in  essential  ones,  and  thus  gain  the  advantages  of  com 
promise  without  the  weakness  of  concession ;  by  so  in 
stinctively  comprehending  the  temper  and  prejudices 
of  a  people  as  to  make  them  gradually  conscious  of 
the  superior  wisdom  of  his  freedom  from  temper  and 
prejudice,  —  it  is  by  qualities  such  as  these  that  a 
magistrate  shows  himself  worthy  to  be  chief  in  a 
commonwealth  of  freemen.  And  it  is  for  qualities 
such  as  these  that  we  firmly  believe  History  will  rank 
Mr.  Lincoln  among  the  most  prudent  of  statesmen 
and  the  most  successful  of  rulers.  If  we  wish  to 
appreciate  him,  we  have  only  to  conceive  the  inevita~ 
ble  chaos  in  which  we  should  now  be  weltering,  had 
a  weak  man  or  an  unwise  one  been  chosen  in  his 
stead.  / 

"  Bare  is  back,"  says  the  Norse  proverb,  "  without 
brother  behind  it " ;  and  this  is,  by  analogy,  true  of 
an  elective  magistracy.  The  hereditary  ruler  in  any 
critical  emergency  may  reckon  on  the  inexhaustible 
resources  of  prestige^  of  sentiment,  of  superstition,  of 


8 


14  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

dependent  interest,  while  the  new  man  must  slowly 
and  painfully  create  all  these  out  of  the  unwilling 
material  around  him,  by  superiority  of  character,  by 
patient  singleness  of  purpose,  by  sagacious  presenti 
ment  of  popular  tendencies  and  instinctive  sympathy 
with  the  national  character.  Mr.  Lincoln's  task  was 
one  of  peculiar  and  exceptional  difficulty.  Long 
habit  had  accustomed  the  American  people  to  the 
notion  of  a  party  in  power,  and  of  a  President  as  its 
creature  and  organ,  while  the  more  vital  fact,  that  the 
executive  for  the  time  being  represents  the  abstract 
idea  of  government  as  a  permanent  principle  superior 
to  all  party  and  all  private  interest,  had  gradually 
become  unfamiliar.  They  had  so  long  seen  the  pub 
lic  policy  more  or  less  directed  by  views  of  party,  and 
often  even  of  personal  advantage,  as  to  be  ready  to  sus 
pect  tho  motives  of  a  chief  magistrate  compelled,  for 
the  first  time  in  our  history,  to  feel  himself  the  head 
and  hand  of  a  great  nation,  and  to  act  upon  the  fun 
damental  maxim,  laid  down  by  all  publicists,  that  the 
first  duty  of  a  government  is  to  defend  and  maintain 
its  own  existence.  Accordingly,  a  powerful  weapon 
seemed  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the  opposition  by 
the  necessity  under  which  the  administration  found 
itself  of  applying  this  old  truth  to  new  relations.  Nor 
were  the  opposition  his  only  nor  his  most  dangerous 
opponents. 

The  Republicans  had  carried  the  country  upon  an 
issue  in  which  ethics  were  more  directly  and  visibly 
mingled  with  politics  than  usual.  Their  leaders  were 
trained  to  a  method  of  oratory  which  relied  for  its  ef 
fect  rather  on  the  moral  sense  than  the  understanding. 
Their  arguments  were  drawn,  not  so  much  from  experi 
ence  as  from  general  principles  of  right  and  wrong. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  15 

When  the  war  came,  their  system  continued  to  be  ap 
plicable  and  effective,  for  here  again  the  reason  of  tho 
people  was  to  be  reached  and  kindled  through  their 
sentiments.  It  was  one  of  those  periods  of  excitement, 
gathering,  contagious,  universal,  which,  while  they 
last,  exalt  and  clarify  the  minds  of  men,  giving  to  the 
mere  words  country,  human  rights,  democracy,  a 
meaning  and  a  force  beyond  that  of  sober  and  logical 
argument.  They  were  convictions,  maintained  and  de 
fended  by  the  supreme  logic  of  passion.  That  pene 
trating  fire  ran  in  and  roused  those  primary  instincts 
that  make  their  lair  in  the  dens  and  caverns  of  the 
mind.  What  is  called  the  great  popular  heart  was 
awakened,  that  indefinable  something  which  may  be, 
according  to  circumstances,  the  highest  reason  or  the 
most  brutish  unreason.  But  enthusiasm,  once  cold, 
can  never  be  warmed  over  into  anything  better  than 
cant,  —  and  phrases,  when  once  the  inspiration  that 
filled  them  with  beneficent  power  has  ebbed  away, 
retain  only  that  semblance  of  meaning  which  enables 
them  to  supplant  reason  in  hasty  minds.  Among  the 
lessons  taught  by  the  French  Revolution  there  is  none 
sadder  or  more  striking  than  this,  that  you  may  make 
everything  else  out  of  the  passions  of  men  except  a 
political  system  that  will  work,  and  that  there  is  noth 
ing  so  pitilessly  and  unconsciously  cruel  as  sincerity 
formulated  into  dogma.  It  is  always  demoralizing  to 
extend  the  domain  of  sentiment  over  questions  where 
it  has  no  legitimate  jurisdiction  ;  and  perhaps  the  se 
verest  strain  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  resisting  a  ten 
dency  of  his  own  supporters  which  chimed  with  his 
own  private  desires  while  wholly  opposed  to  his  con 
victions  of  what  would  be  wise  policy. ^/ 
-f  The  change  which  three  years  have  brought  about 


16  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

is  too  remarkable  to  be  passed  over  without  comment, 
too  weighty  in  its  lesson  not  to  be  laid  to  heart. 
Never  did  a  President  enter  upon  office  with  less 
means  at  his  command,  outside  his  own  strength  of 
heart  and  steadiness  of  understanding,  for  inspiring 
confidence  in  the  people,  and  so  winning  it  for  himself 9 
than  Mr.  Lincoln.  All  that  was  known  of  him  was 
that  he  was  a  good  stump-speaker,  nominated  for  his 
availability,  —  that  is,  because  he  had  no  history,  -— 
and  chosen  by  a  party  with  whose  more  extreme  opin-  • 
ions  he  was  not  in  sympathy.  It  might  well  be  feared 
that  a  man  past  fifty,  against  whom  the  ingenuity  of 
hostile  partisans  could  rake  up  no  accusation,  must  be 
lacking  in  manliness  of  character,  in  decision  of  prin 
ciple,  in  strength  of  will ;  that  a  man  who  was  at  best 
only  the  representative  of  a  party,  and  who  yet  did 
not  fairly  represent  even  that,  would  fail  of  political, 
much  more  of  popular,  support.  And  certainly  no 
one  ever  entered  upon  office  with  so  few  resources  of 
power  in  the  past,  and  so  many  materials  of  weakness 
in  the  present,  as  Mr.  Lincoln.  Even  in  that  half  of 
the  Union  which  acknowledged  him  as  President, 
there  was  a  large,  and  at  that  time  dangerous  minor 
ity,  that  hardly  admitted  his  claim  to  the  office,  and 
even  in  the  party  that  elected  him  there  was  also  a 
large  minority  that  suspected  him  of  being  secretly  a 
'  communicant  with  the  church  of  Laodicea.1  All  that 
he  did  was  sure  to  be  virulently  attacked  as  ultra  by 
one  side ;  all  that  he  left  undone,  to  be  stigmatized  as 
proof  of  lukewarmness  and  backsliding  by  the  other. 
Meanwhile  he  was  to  carry  on  a  truly  colossal  war  by 
means  of  both ;  he  was  to  disengage  the  country  from 
diplomatic  entanglements  of  unprecedented  peril  ua» 
1  See  the  Book  of  Revelation,  chapter  G,  verse  15. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  17 

disturbed  by  the  help  or  the  hinderance  of  either,  and 
to  win  from  the  crowning  dangers  of  his  administra 
tion,  in  the  confidence  of  the  people,  the  means  of  his 
safety  and  their  own.  He  has  contrived  to  do  it,  and 
perhaps  none  of  our  Presidents  since  Washington  has 
stood  so  firm  in  the  confidence  of  the  people  as  he 
does  after  three  years  of  stormy  administration. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  was  a  tentative  one,  and 
rightly  so.  He  laid  down  no  programme  which  must 
compel  him  to  be  either  inconsistent  or  unwise,  no 
cast-iron  theorem  to  which  circumstances  must  be 
fitted  as  they  rose,  or  else  be  useless  to  his  ends.  He 
seemed  to  have  chosen  Mazarin's  motto,  Le  temps  et 
moi.1  The  raoi,  to  be  sure,  was  not  very  prominent 
at  first ;  but  it  has  grown  more  and  more  so,  till  the 
world  is  beginning  to  be  persuaded  that  it  stands  fora 
character  of  marked  individuality  and  capacity  for  af 
fairs.  Time  was  his  prime-minister,  and,  we  began  to 
think,  at  one  period,  his  general-in-chief  also.  At  first 
he  was  so  slow  that  he  tired  out  all  those  who  see  no 
evidence  of  progress  but  in  blowing  up  the  engine  ; 
then  he  was  so  fast,  that  he  took  the  breath  away  from 
those  who  think  there  is  no  getting  on  safely  while 
there  is  a  spark  of  fire  under  the  boilers.  God  is  the 
only  being  who  has  time  enough  ;  but  a  prudent  man, 
who  knows  how  to  seize  occasion,  can  commonly  make 
a  shift  to  find  as  much  as  he  needs.  Mr.  Lincoln,  as 
it  seems  to  us  in  reviewing  his  career,  though  we  have 
sometimes  in  our  impatience  thought  otherwise,  has 
always  waited,  as  a  wise  man  should,  till  the  right  mo 
ment  brought  up  all  his  reserves.  /Semper  nocuit  dif- 
ferre  paratis?  is  a  sound  axiom,  but  the  really  effica- 

1  Time  and  I.  Cardinal  Mazarin  was  prime-minister  of  Louis  XIV. 
of  France.  Time,  Mazarin  said,  was  his  prime -minister. 

It  is  always  bad  for  those  who  are  ready  to  put  off  action. 


18  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cious  man  will  also  be  sure  to  know  when  he  is  not 
ready,  and  be  firm  against  all  persuasion  and  reproach 
till  he  is. 

|  One  would  be  apt  to  think,  from  some  of  the  criti 
cisms  made  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  course  by  those  who 
mainly  agree  with  him  in  principle,  that  the  chief  ob 
ject  of  a  statesman  should  be  rather  to  proclaim  his 
adhesion  to  certain  doctrines,  than  to  achieve  their 
triumph  by  quietly  accomplishing  his  ends.  In  our 
opinion,  there  is  no  more  unsafe  politician  than  a  con 
scientiously  rigid  doctrinaire,  nothing  more  sure  to 
end  in  disaster  than  a  theoretic  scheme  of  policy  that 
admits  of  no  pliability  for  contingencies.  True,  there 
is  a  popular  image  of  an  impossible  He,  in  whose  plas 
tic  hands  the  submissive  destinies  of  mankind  become 
as  wax,  and  to  whose  commanding  necessity  the  tough 
est  facts  yield  with  the  graceful  pliancy  of  fiction  ;  but 
in  real  life  we  commonly  find  that  the  men  who  con 
trol  circumstances,  as  it  is  called,  are  those  who  have 
learned  to  allow  for  the  influence  of  their  eddies,  and 
have  the  nerve  to  turn  them  to  account  at  the  happy 
instant.  Mr.  Lincoln's  perilous  task  has  been  to  carry 
a  rather  shaky  raft  through  the  rapids,  making  fast 
the  unrulier  logs  as  he  could  snatch  opportunity,  and 
the  country  is  to  be  congratulated  that  he  did  not 
think  it  his  duty  to  run  straight  at  all  hazards,  but 
cautiously  to  assure  himself  with  his  setting-pole  where 
the  main  current  was,  and  keep  steadily  to  that.  He 
Is  still  in  wild  water,  but  we  have  faith  that  his  skill 
and  sureness  of  eye  will  bring  him  out  right  at  last. 
^  A  curious,  and,  as  we  think,  not  inapt  parallel, 
might  be  drawn  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  one  of  the 
most  striking  figures  in  modern  history,  —  Henry  IV. 
of  France.  The  career  of  the  latter  may  be  more  pic- 


LOWELL'S   ESSAY.  19 

turesque,  as  that  of  a  daring  captain  always  is  ;  but  in 
all  its  vicissitudes  there  is  nothing  more  romantic  than 
that  sudden  change,  as  by  a  rub  of  Aladdin's  lamp, 
from  the  attorney's  office  in  a  country  town  of  Illinois 
to  the  helm  of  a  great  nation  in  times  like  these.  The 
analogy  between  the  characters  and  circumstances  of 
the  two  men  is  in  many  respects  singularly  close,, 
Succeeding  to  a  rebellion  rather  than  a  crown,  Henry's 
chief  material  dependence  was  the  Huguenot  party? 
whose  doctrines  sat  upon  him  with  a  looseness  dis 
tasteful  certainly,  if  not  suspicious,  to  the  more  fanati 
cal  among  them.  King  only  in  name  over  the  greater 
part  of  France,  and  with  his  capital  barred  against 
him,  it  yet  gradually  became  clear  to  the  more  far-see 
ing  even  of  the  Catholic  party  that  he  was  the  only 
centre  of  order  and  legitimate  authority  round  which 
France  could  reorganize  itself.  While  preachers  who 
held  the  divine  right  of  kings  made  the  churches  of 
Paris  ring  with  declamations  in  favor  of  democracy 
rather  than  submit  to  the  heretic  dog  of  a  Be*arnois,* 
• —  much  as  our  soi-disant  Democrats  have  lately  beetf, 
preaching  the  divine  right  of  slavery,  and  denouncing 
the  heresies  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  — 
Henry  bore  both  parties  in  hand  till  he  was  convinced 
that  only  one  course  of  action  could  possibly  combine 
his  own  interests  and  those  of  France.  Meanwhile 
the  Protestants  believed  somewhat  doubtfully  that  he 
was  theirs,  the  Catholics  hoped  somewhat  doubtfully 
that  he  would  be  theirs,  and  Henry  himself  turned 
aside  remonstrance,  advice,  and  curiosity  alike  with  a 
jest  or  a  proverb  (if  a  little  high,  he  liked  them  none 
the  worse),  joking  continually  as  his  manner  was. 

1  One  of  Henry's  titles  was  Prince  of  Beam,  that  being  the  old 
province  of  France  from  which  he  came. 


20  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

We  have  seen  Mr.  Lincoln  contemptuously  compared 
to  Sancho  Panza  by  persons  incapable  of  appreciating 
one  of  the  deepest  pieces  of  wisdom  in  the  profoundest 
romance  ever  written ;  namely,  that,  while  Don  Quix 
ote  was  incomparable  in  theoretic  and  ideal  statesman 
ship,  Sancho,  with  his  stock  of  proverbs,  the   ready 
money  of  human  experience,  made  the  best  possible 
practical  governor.    Henry  IV.  was  as  full  of  wise  saws 
and  modern  instances  as  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  beneath  all 
this  was  the  thoughtful,  practical,  humane,  and  thor 
oughly  earnest  man,  around  whom  the  fragments  of 
France    were  to   gather  themselves  till  she  took  her 
place  again  as  a  planet  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the 
European  system.     In  one  respect  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
more  fortunate  than  Henry.    However  some  may  think 
him  wanting  in  zeal,  the  most  fanatical  can  find  no 
taint  of  apostasy  in  any  measure  of  his,  nor  can  the 
most  bitter  charge  him  with  being  influenced  by  mo 
tives  of  personal  interest.     The  leading  distinction  be 
tween  the  policies  of  the  two  is  one  of  circumstances. 
Henry  went  over  to  the  nation  ;  Mr.  Lincoln  has  stead 
ily  drawn  the  nation  over  to  him.     One  left  a  united 
France  ;  the  other,  we  hope  and  believe,  will  leave  a 
reunited  America.     We  leave  our  readers  to  trace  the 
further  points  of  difference  and  resemblance  for  them 
selves,  merely  suggesting  a  general  similarity  which 
bas  often  occurred  to  us.     One  only  point  of  melan 
choly  interest  we  will  allow  ourselves  to  touch  upon. 
That  Mr.  Lincoln  is  not  handsome  nor  elegant,  we 
learn  from  certain  English  tourists  who  would  consider 
similar   revelations    in    regard  to  Queen  Victoria  as 
thoroughly  American  in  their  want  of  bicnseance.     It 
is  no  concern  of  ours,  nor  does  it  affect  his  fitness  for 
the  high  place  he   so   worthily  occupies;   but  he   is 


LOWELL  3  ESS  AT.  21 

certainly  as  fortunate  as  Henry  in  the  matter  of  good 
looks,  if  we  may  trust  contemporary  evidence.  Mr. 
Lincoln  has  also  been  reproached  with  Americanism 
by  some  not  unfriendly  British  critics ;  but,  with  all 
deference,  we  cannot  say  that  we  like  him  any  the 
worse  for  it,  or  see  in  it  any  reason  why  he  should 
govern  Americans  the  less  wisely.  / 

/J  People  of  more  sensitive  organizations  may  be 
shocked,  but  we  are  glad  that  in  this  our  true  war  of 
independence,  which  is  to  free  us  forever  from  the  Old 
World,  we  have  had  at  the  head  of  our  affairs  a  man 
whom  America  made,  as  God  made  Adam,  out  of  the 
very  earth,  unancestried,  unprivileged,  unknown,  to 
show  us  how  much  truth,  how  much  magnanimity,  and 
how  much  statecraft  await  the  call  of  opportunity  in 
simple  manhood  when  it  believes  in  the  justice  of  God 
and  the  worth  of  man.  Conventionalities  are  all  ver}r 
well  in  their  proper  place,  but  they  shrivel  at  the  touch 
of  nature  like  stubble  in  the  fire.  The  genius  that 
sways  a  nation  by  its  arbitrary  will  seems  less  august 
to  us  than  that  which  multiplies  and  reinforces  itself  in 
the  instincts  and  convictions  of  an  entire  people.  Au 
tocracy  may  have  something  in  it  more  melodramatic 
than  this,  but  falls  far  short  of  it  in  human  value  and 
interest. 

/  4-  Experience  would  have  bred  in  us  a  rooted  distrust 
cf  improvised  statesmanship,  even  if  we  did  not  believe 
politics  to  be  a  science,  which,  if  it  cannot  always  com 
mand  men  of  special  aptitude  and  great  powers,  at. 
least  demands  the  long  and  steady  application  of  tho 
best  powers  of  such  men  as  it  can  command  to  maste: 
even  its  first  principles.  It  is  curious,  that,  in  a  coun 
try  which  boasts  of  its  intelligence  the  theory  should 
be  so  generally  held  that  the  most  complicated  of 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

human  contrivances,  and  one  which  every  day  be» 
comes  more  complicated,  can  be  worked  at  sight  by 
any  man  able  to  talk  for  an  hour  or  two  without  stop 
ping  to  think. 

Mr.  Lincoln  is  sometimes  claimed  as  an  example  of 
a  ready-made  ruler.  But  no  case  could  well  be  less  in 
point ;  for,  besides  that  he  was  a  man  of  such  fair, 
mindedness  as  is  always  the  raw  material  of  wisdom, 
he  had  in  his  profession  a  training  precisely  the  oppo 
site  of  that  to  which  a  partisan  is  subjected.  His  ex 
perience  as  a  lawyer  compelled  him  not  only  to  see 
that  there  is  a  principle  underlying  every  phenomenon 
in  human  affairs,  but  that  there  are  always  two  sides 
to  every  question,  both  of  which  must  be  fully  under 
stood  in  order  to  understand  either,  and  that  it  is  of 
greater  advantage  to  an  advocate  to  appreciate  the 
strength  than  the  weakness  of  his  antagonist's  position. 
Nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  unerring  tact  with 
which,  in  his  debate  with  Mr.  Douglas,  he  went  straight 
to  the  reason  of  the  question  ;  nor  have  we  ever  had  a 
more  striking  lesson  in  political  tactics  than  the.  fact, 
that  opposed  tcf  a  man  jexceptionally  adroit,  in  using 
popular  prejudice  and  bigotry  to  his  purpose,  exception 
ally  unscrupulous  in  appealing  to  those  baser  motives 
that  turn  a  meeting  of  citizens  into  a  mob  of  barba 
rians,  he  should  yet  have  won  his  case  before  a  jury  of 
the  people.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  as  far  as  possible  from 
an  impromptu  politician.  His  wisdom  was  made  up  of 
a  knowledge  of  things  as  well  as  of  men  ;  his  sagacity 
resulted  from  a  clear  perception  and  honest  acknowl 
edgment  of  difficulties,  which  enabled  him  to  see  that 
the  only  durable  triumph  of  political  opinion  is  based, 
not  on  any  abstract  right,  but  upon  so  much  of  justice, 
the  highest  attainable  at  any  given  moment  in  human 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  28 

affairs,  as  may  be  had  in  the  balance  of  mutual  conces 
sion.  Doubtless  he  had  an  ideal,  but  it  was  the  ideal 
of  a  practical  statesman,  —  to  aim  at  the  best,  and  to 
take  the  next  best,  if  he  is  lucky  enough  to  get  even 
that.  His  slow,  but  singularly  masculine,  intelligence 
oaught  him  that  precedent  is  only  another  name  for 
embodied  experience,  and  that  it  counts  for  even  more 
in  the  guidance  of  communities  of  men  than  in  that  of 
the  individual  life.  He  was  not  a  man  who  held  it 
good  public  economy  to  pull  down  on  the  mere  chance 
of  rebuilding  better.  Mr.  Lincoln's  faith  in  God  was 
qualified  by  a  very  well-founded  distrust  of  the  wisdom 
of  man.  Perhaps  it  was  his  want  of  self-confidence 
that  more  than  anything  else  won  him  the  unlimited 
confidence  of  the  people,  for  they  felt  that  there  would 
be  no  need  of  retreat  from  any  position  he  had  delib 
erately  taken.  The  cautious,  but  steady,  advance  of 
his  policy  during  the  war  was  like  that  of  a  Roman 
army.  He  left  behind  him  a  firm  road  on  which  pub 
lic  confidence  could  follow  ;  he  took  America  with  him 
where  he  went ;  what  he  gained  he  occupied,  and  his 
advanced  posts  became  colonies.  The  ^ery  homeliness 
of  hjs  genius  was  its  distinction.  Hi$  kingship  was 
conspicuous  by  its  workday  homespun.  Never  was 
ruler  so  absolute  as  he,  nor  so  little  conscious  of  it; 
for  he  was  the  incarnate  common-sense  of  the  people- 
With  all  that  tenderness  of  nature  whose  sweet  sadness 
touched  whoever  saw  him  with  something  of  its  own 
pathos,  there  was  no  trace  of  sentimentalism  in  his 
speech  or  action.  He  seems  to  have  had  but  one  rule 
of  conduct,  always  that  of  practical  and  successful  pol 
itics,  to  let  himself  be  guided  by  events,  when  they 
were  sure  to  bring  him  out  where  he  wished  to  go, 
though  by  what  seemed  to  unpractical  minds,  which 


24  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

let  go  the  possible  to  grasp  at  the  desirable,  a  longer 
road. 

/  4.  Undoubtedly  the  highest  function  of  statesmanship 
is  by  degrees  to  accommodate  the  conduct  of  commu 
nities  to  ethical  laws,  and  to  subordinate  the  conflict* 
ing  self-interests  of  the  day  to  higher  and  more  perma 
nent  concerns.  But  it  is  on  the  understanding,  and 
not  on  the  sentiment,  of  a  nation  that  all  safe  legisla 
tion  must  be  based.  Voltaire's  saying,  that  "  a  consid 
eration  of  petty  circumstances  is  the  tomb  of  great 
things,"  may  be  true  of  individual  men,  but  it  cer 
tainly  is  not  true  of  governments.  It  is  by  a  multi 
tude  of  such  considerations,  each  in  itself  trifling,  but 
all  together  weighty,  that  the  framers  of  policy  can 
alone  divine  what  is  practicable  and  therefore  wise. 
The  imputation  of  inconsistency  is  one  to  which  every 
sound  politician  and  every  honest  thinker  must  sooner 
or  later  subject  himself.  The  foolish  and  the  dead 
alone  never  change  their  opinion.  The  course  of  a 
great  statesman  resembles  that  of  navigable  rivers, 
avoiding  immovable  obstacles  with  noble  bends  of  con- 

O 

cession,  seeking  the  broad  levels  of  opinion  on  which 
men  soonest  settle  and  longest  dwell,  following  and 
marking  the  almost  imperceptible  slopes  of  national 
tendency,  yet  always  aiming  at  direct  advances,  always 
recruited  from  sources  nearer  heaven,  and  sometimes 
bursting  open  paths  of  progress  and  fruitful  human  com* 
merce  through  what  seem  the  eternal  barriers  of  both. 
It  is  loyalty  to  great  ends,  even  though  forced  to  com- 
bine  the  small  and  opposing  motives  of  selfish  men  to 
accomplish  them  ;  it  is  the  anchored  cling  to  solid  prin 
ciples  of  duty  and  action,  which  knows  how  to  swing 
with  the  tide,  but  is  never  carried  away  by  it, —  that 
we  demand  in  public  men,  and  not  sameness  of  policy, 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  25 

or  a  conscientious  persistency  in  what  is  impracticable. 
For  the  impracticable,  however  theoretically  enticing, 
is  always  politically  unwise,  sound  statesmanship  being 
the  application  of  that  prudence  to  the  public  business 
which  is  the  safest  guide  in  that  of  private  men. 
/No  doubt  slavery  was  the  most  delicate  and  embar 
rassing  question  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  called 
on  to  deal,  and  it  was  one  which  no  man  in  his  posi 
tion,  whatever  his  opinions,  could  evade  ;  for,  though 
he  might  withstand  the  clamor  of  partisans,  he  must 
sooner  or  later  yield  to  the  persistent  importunacy  of 
circumstances,  which  thrust  the  problem  upon  him  at 
every  turn  and  in  every  shape. 

It  has  been  brought  against  us  as  an  accusation 
abroad,  and  repeated  here  by  people  who  measure  their 
country  rather  by  what  is  thought  of  it  than  by  what 
it  is,  that  our  war  has  not  been  distinctly  and  avow 
edly  for  the  extinction  of  slavery,  but  a  war  rather  for 
the  preservation  of  our  national  power  and  greatness, 
in  which  the  emancipation  of  the  negro  has  been  forced 
upon  us  by  circumstances  and  accepted  as  a  necessity. 
We  are  very  far  from  denying  this ;  nay,  we  admit 
that  it  is  so  far  true  that  we  were  slow  to  renounce  our 
constitutional  obligations  even  toward  those  who  had 
absolved  us  by  their  own  act  from  the  letter  of  our 
duty.  We  are  speaking  of  the  government  which,  le 
gally  installed  for  the  whole  country,  was  bound,  so 
long  as  it  was  possible,  not  to  overstep  the  limits  of 
orderly  prescription,  and  could  not,  without  abnega 
ting  its  own  very  nature,  take  the  lead  in  making  re 
bellion  an  excuse  for  revolution.  There  were,  no  doubt, 
many  ardent  and  sincere  persons  who  seemed  to  think 
this  as  simple  a  thing  to  do  as  to  lead  off  a  Virginia 
reel.  They  forgot,  what  should  be  forgotten  least  of 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

all  in  a  system  like  ours,  that  the  administration  fop 
the  time  being  represents  not  only  the  majority  which 
elects  it,  but  the  minority  as  well, —  a  minority  in  this 
case  powerful,  and  so  little  ready  for  emancipation 
that  it  was  opposed  even  to  war.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not 
been  chosen  as  general  agent  of  an  anti-slavery  society  3 
but  President  of  the  United  States,  to  perform  certain 
functions  exactly  defined  by  law.  Whatever  were  his 
wishes,  it  was  no  less  duty  than  policy  to  mark  out  for 
himself  a  line  of  action  that  would  not  further  distract 
the  country,  by  raising  before  their  time  questions 
which  plainly  would  soon  enough  compel  attention, 
and  for  which  every  day  was  making  the  answer  more 
easy. 

J  A  Meanwhile  he  must  solve  the  riddle  of  this  new 
Sphinx,  or  be  devoured.  Though  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy 
in  this  critical  affair  has  not  been  such  as  to  satisfy 
those  who  demand  an  heroic  treatment  for  even  the 
most  trifling  occasion,  and  who  will  not  cut  their  coat 
according  to  their  cloth,  unless  they  can  borrow  the 
scissors  of  Atropos,1  it  has  been  at  least  not  unworthy 
of  the  long-headed  king  of  Ithaca.2  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
the  choice  of  Bassanio  3  offered  him.  Which  of  the 
three  caskets  held  the  prize  that  was  to  redeem  the 
fortunes  of  the  country  ?  There  was  the  golden  one 
whose  showy  speciousness  might  have  tempted  a  vain 
man  ;  the  silver  of  compromise,  which  might  have  de 
cided  the  choice  of  a  merely  acute  one ;  and  the 
leaden,  —  dull  and  homely-looking,  as  prudence  al 
ways  is,  —  yet  with  something  about  it  sure  to  attract 
the  eye  of  practical  wisdom.  Mr.  Lincoln  dallied 

1  One  of  the  three  Fates. 

2  Odysseus,  or  Ulysses,  the  hero  of  Homer's  Odyssey. 
8  See  Shakespeare's  Merchant  of  Venice. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  27 

with  his  decision  perhaps  longer  than  seemed  needful 
to  those  on  whom  its  awful  responsibility  was  not  to 
rest,  but  when  he  made  it,  it  was  worthy  of  his  cau 
tious  but  sure-footed  understanding.  The  moral  of 
the  Sphinx-riddle,  and  it  is  a  deep  one,  lies  in  the 
childish  simplicity  of  the  solution.  Those  who  fail  in 
guessing  it,  fail  becar.se  they  are  over-ingenious,  and 
cast  about  for  an  answer  that  shall  suit  their  own  no 
tion  of  the  gravity  of  the  occasion  and  of  their  own 
dignity,  rather  than  the  occasion  itself. 

In  a  matter  which  must  be  finally  settled  by  public 
opinion,  and  in  regard  to  which  the  ferment  of  preju 
dice  and  passion  on  both  sides  has  not  yet  subsided  to 
that  equilibrium  of  compromise  from  which  alone  a 
sound  public  opinion  can  result,  it  is  proper  enough 
for  the  private  citizen  to  press  his  own  convictions 
with  all  possible  force  of  argument  and  persuasion  ; 
but  the  popular  magistrate,  whose  judgment  must  be 
come  action,  and  whose  action  involves  the  whole 
country,  is  bound  to  wait  till  the  sentiment  of  the 
people  is  so  far  advanced  toward  his  own  point  of 
view,  that  what  he  does  shall  find  support  in  it,  in 
stead  of  merely  confusing  it  with  new  elements  of  di 
vision.  It  was  not  unnatural  that  men  earnestly 
devoted  to  the  saving  of  their  country,  and  profoundly 
convinced  that  slavery  was  its  only  real  enemy,  should 
demand  a  decided  policy  round  which  all  patriots 
might  rally,  —  and  this  might  have  been  the  wisest 
course  for  an  absolute  ruler.  But  in  the  then  unset 
tled  state  of  the  public  mind,  with  a  large  party  de 
crying  even  resistance  to  the  slaveholders'  rebellion  as 
not  only  unwise,  but  even  unlawful ;  with  a  majority, 
perhaps,  even  of  the  would-be  loyal  so  long  accus 
tomed  to  regard  the  Constitution  as  a  deed  of  gift 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

conveying  to  the  South  their  own  judgment  as  to  pol 
icy  and  instinct  as  to  right,  that  they  were  in  doubt  at 
first  whether  their  loyalty  were  due  to  the  country  or 
to  slavery  ;  and  with  a  respectable  body  of  honest  and 
influential  men  who  still  believed  in  the  possibility  of 
conciliation,  —  Mr.  Lincoln  judged  wisely,  that,  in 
laying  down  a  policy  in  deference  to  one  party,  he 
should  be  giving  to  the  other  the  very  fulcrum  for 
which  their  disloyalty  had  been  waiting.  / 
£  f  It  behooved  a  clear-headed  man  in  his  position  not 
to  yield  so  far  to  an  honest  indignation  against  the 
brokers  of  treason  in  the  North  as  to  lose  sight  of  the 
materials  for  misleading  which  were  their  stock  in 
trade,  and  to  forget  that  it  is  not  the  falsehood  of 
sophistry  which  is  to  be  feared,  but  the  grain  of  truth 
mingled  with  it  to  make  it  specious,  —  that  it  is  not 
the  knavery  of  the  leaders  so  much  as  the  honesty  of 
the  followers  they  may  seduce,  that  gives  them  power 
for  evil.  It  was  especially  his  duty  to  do  nothing 
which  might  help  the  people  to  forget  the  true  cause 
of  the  war  in  fruitless  disputes  about  its  inevitable 
consequences. 

I  2,  The  doctrine  of  State  rights  can  be  so  handled  by 
an  adroit  demagogue  as  easily  to  confound  the  distinc 
tion  between  liberty  and  lawlessness  in  the  minds  of 
ignorant  persons,  accustomed  always  to  be  influenced 
by  the  sound  of  certain  words,  rather  than  to  reflect 
upon  the  principles  which  give  them  meaning.  For, 
though  Secession  involves  the  manifest  absurdity  of 
denying  to  a  State  the  right  of  making  war  against  any 
foreign  power  while  permitting  it  against  the  United 
States ;  though  it  supposes  a  compact  of  mutual  con. 
cessions  and  guaranties  among  States  without  any  ar. 
biter  in  case  of  dissension  ;  though  it  contradicts  com. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  29 

mon-sense  in  assuming  that  the  men  who  framed  our 
government  did  not  know  what  they  meant  when  they 
substituted  Union  for  Confederation ;  though  it  falsi 
fies  history,  which  shows  that  the  main  opposition  to 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  was  based  on  the  ar 
gument  that  it  did  not  allow  that  independence  in  the 
several  States  which  alone  would  justify  them  in  seced 
ing  ;  —  yet,  as  slavery  was  universally  admitted  to  be 
a  reserved  right,  an  inference  could  be  drawn  from 
any  direct  attack  upon  it  (though  only  in  self-defence) 
to  a  natural  right  of  resistance,  logical  enough  to  sat 
isfy  minds  untrained  to  detect  fallacy,  as  the  majority 
of  men  always  are,  and  now  too  much  disturbed  by 
the  disorder  of  the  times,  to  consider  that  the  order 
of  events  had  any  legitimate  bearing  on  the  argument. 
Though  Mr.  Lincoln  was  too  sagacious  to  give  the 
Northern  allies  of  the  Rebels  the  occasion  they  desired 
and  even  strove  to  provoke,  yet  from  the  beginning  of 
the  war  the  most  persistent  efforts  have  been  made  to 
confuse  the  public  mind  as  to  its  origin  and  motives, 
and  to  drag  the  people  of  the  loyal  States  down  from 
the  national  position  they  had  instinctively  taken  to 
the  old  level  of  party  squabbles  and  antipathies.  The 
wholly  unprovoked  rebellion  of  an  oligarchy  proclaim 
ing  negro  slavery  the  corner-stone  of  free  institutions* 
and  in  the  first  flush  of  over-hasty  confidence  ventur 
ing  to  parade  the  logical  sequence  of  their  leading 
dogma,  "  that  slavery  is  right  in  principle,  and  has 
nothing  to  do  with  difference  of  complexion,"  has 
been  represented  as  a  legitimate  and  gallant  attempt 
to  maintain  the  true  principles  of  democracy.  The 
rightful  endeavor  of  an  established  government,  the 
least  onerous  that  ever  existed,  to  defend  itself  against 
ft  treacherous  attack  on  its  very  existence,  has  beeD 


30  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

cunningly  made  to  seern  the  wicked  effort  of  a  fanati 
cal  clique  to  force  its  doctrines  on  an  oppressed  popu 
lation. 

2.  3  Even  so  long  ago  as  when  Mr.  Lincoln,  not  yet  con 
vinced  of  the  danger  and  magnitude  of  the  crisis,  was 
i>,ndeavoring  to  persuade  himself  of  Union  majorities  at 
the  South,  and  to  carry  on  a  war  that  was  half  peace 
in  the  hope  of  a  peace  that  would  have  been  all  war,  — 
while  he  was  still  enforcing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
under  some  theory  that  Secession,  however  it  might 
absolve  States  from  their  obligations,  could  not  es 
cheat  them  of  their  claims  under  the  Constitution,  and 
that  slaveholders  in  rebellion  had  alone  among  mortals 
the  privilege  of  having  their  cake  and  eating  it  at  the 
eame  time,  —  the  enemies  of  free  government  were 
striving  to  persuade  the  people  that  the  war  was  an 
Abolition  crusade.  To  rebel  without  reason  was  pro 
claimed  as  one  of  the  rights  of  man,  while  it  was  care 
fully  kept  out  of  sight  that  to  suppress  rebellion  is  the 
first  duty  of  government.  All  the  evils  that  have 
come  upon  the  country  have  been  attributed  to  the 
Abolitionists,  though  it  is  hard  to  see  how  any  party 
can  become  permanently  powerful  except  in  one  of 
two  ways,  —  either  by  the  greater  truth  of  its  princi 
ples,  or  the  extravagance  of  the  party  opposed  to  it- 
To  fancy  the  ship  of  state,  riding  safe  at  her  constitu 
tional  moorings,  suddenly  engulfed  by  a  huge  kraken 
of  Abolitionism,  rising  from  unknown  depths  and 
grasping  it  with  slimy  tentacles,  is  to  look  at  the  nat 
ural  history  of  the  matter  with  the  eyes  of  Pont  op 
pidan.1  To  believe  that  the  leaders  in  the  Southern 
treason  feared  any  danger  from  Abolitionism,  would 
be  to  deny  them  ordinary  intelligence,  though  there 

1  A  Danish  antiquary  and  theologian. 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  31 

can  be  little  doubt  that  they  made  use  of  it  to  stir  the 
passions  and  excite  the  fears  of  their  deluded  accom 
plices.  They  rebelled,  not  because  they  thought  slav 
ery  weak,  but  because  they  believed  it  strong  enough, 
not  to  overthrow  the  government,  but  to  get  posses 
sion  of  it ;  for  it  becomes  daily  clearer  that  they  used 
rebellion  only  as  a  means  of  revolution,  and  if  they 
got  revolution,  though  not  in  the  shape  they  looked 
for,  is  the  American  people  to  save  them  from  its  con 
sequences  at  the  cost  of  its  own  existence  ?  The  elec 
tion  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  which  it  was  clearly  in  their 
power  to  prevent  had  they  wished,  was  the  occasion 
merely,  and  not  the  cause,  of  their  revolt.  Abolition 
ism,  till  within  a  year  or  two,  was  the  despised  heresy 
of  a  few  earnest  persons,  without  political  weight 
enough  to  carry  the  election  of  a  parish  constable  ; 
and  their  cardinal  principle  was  disunion,  because 
they  were  convinced  that  within  the  Union  the  posi 
tion  of  slavery  was  impregnable.  In  spite  of  the 
proverb,  great  effects  do  not  follow  from  small  causes, 
—  that  is,  disproportionately  small,  —  but  from  ade 
quate  causes  acting  under  certain  required  conditions. 
To  contrast  the  size  of  the  oak  with  that  of  the  parent 
acorn,  as  if  the  poor  seed  had  paid  all  costs  from  its 
slender  strong-box,  may  serve  for  a  child's  wonder; 
but  the  real  miracle  lies  in  that  divine  league  which 
bound  all  the  forces  of  nature  to  the  service  of  the 
tiny  germ  in  fulfilling  its  destiny.  Everything  has 
been  at  work  for  the  past  ten  years  in  the  cause  of 
anti-slavery,  but  Garrison  and  Phillips  have  been  far 
less  successful  propagandists  than  the  slaveholders 
themselves,  with  the  constantly  growing  arrogance  of 
their  pretensions  and  encroachments.  They  have 
forced  the  question  upon  the  attention  of  every  voter 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

in  the  Free  States,  by  defiantly  putting  freedom  and 
democracy  on  the  defensive.  But,  even  after  the 
Kansas  outrages,  there  was  no  wide-spread  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  North  to  commit  aggressions,  though 
there  was  a  growing  determination  to  resist  them. 
The  popular  unanimity  in  favor  of  the  war  three  years 
ago  was  but  in  small  measure  the  result  of  anti-slavery 
sentiment,  far  less  of  any  zeal  for  abolition.  But 
every  month  of  the  war,  every  movement  of  the  allies 
of  slavery  in  the  Free  States,  has  been  making  Aboli 
tionists  by  the  thousand.  The  masses  of  any  people, 
however  intelligent,  are  very  little  moved  by  abstract 
principles  of  humanity  and  justice,  until  those  prin 
ciples  are  interpreted  for  them  by  the  stinging  com 
mentary  of  some  infringement  upon  their  own  rights, 
and  then  their  instincts  and  passions,  once  aroused, 
do  indeed  derive  an  incalculable  reinforcement  of 
impulse  and  intensity  from  those  higher  ideas,  those 
sublime  traditions,  which  have  no  motive  political 
force  till  they  are  allied  with  a  sense  of  immediate 
personal  wrong  or  imminent  peril.  Then  at  last  the 
stars  in  their  courses  begin  to  fight  against  Sisera. 
Had  any  one  doubted  before  that  the  rights  of  human 
nature  are  unitary,  that  oppression  is  of  one  hue  the 
world  over,  no  matter  what  the  color  of  the  oppressed, 
—  had  any  one  failed  to  see  what  the  real  essence  of 
the  contest  was,  —  the  efforts  of  the  advocates  of  slav 
ery  among  ourselves  to  throw  discredit  upon  the  fun 
damental  axioms  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  the  radical  doctrines  of  Christianity,  could  not 
fail  to  sharpen  his  eyes. 

£  u  While  every  day  was  bringing  the  people  nearer  to 
the  conclusion  which  all  thinking  men  saw  to  be  inev 
itable  from  the  beginning,  it  was  wise  in  Mr.  Lincoln 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.  33 


to  leave  the  shaping  of  his  policy  to  events.\!  In  this 
country,  where  the  rough  and  ready  understanding  of 
the  people  is  sure  at  last  to  be  the  controlling  power, 
a  profound  common-sense  is  the  best  genius  for  states 
manship.  Hitherto  the  wisdom  of  the  President's 
measures  has  been  justified  by  the  fact  that  they  have 
always  resulted  in  more  firmly  uniting  public  opinion. 
One  of  the  things  particularly  admirable  in  the  public 
utterances  of  President  Lincoln  is  a  certain  tone  of 
familiar  dignity,  which,  while  it  is  perhaps  the  most 
difficult  attainment  of  mere  style,  is  also  no  doubtful 
indication  of  personal  character.  There  must  Be 
something  essentially  noble  in  an  elective  ruler  who 
can  descend  to  the  level  of  confidential  ease  without 
losing  respect,  something  very  manly  in  one  who  can 
break  through  the  etiquette  of  his  conventional  rank 
and  trust  himself  to  the  reason  and  intelligence  of 
those  who  have  elected  him.  No  higher  compliment 
was  ever  paid  to  a  nation  than  the  simple  confidence, 
the  fireside  plainness,  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  always 
addresses  himself  to  the  reason  of  the  American  people. 
This  was,  indeed,  a  true  democrat,  who  grounded  him 
self  on  the  assumption  that  a  democracy  cau  think. 
44  Come,  let  us  reason  together  about  this  matter,"  has 
been  the  tone  of  all  his  addresses  to  the  people  ;  and 
accordingly  we  have  never  had  a  chief  magistrate 
who  so  won  to  himself  the  love  and  at  the  same  time 
the  judgment  of  his  countrymen.  To  us,  that  sim 
ple  confidence  of  his  in  the  right-mindedness  of  his 
fellow-men  is  very  touching,  and  its  success  is  as  strong 
an  argument  as  we  have  ever  seen  in  favor  of  the 
theory  that  men  can  govern  themselves.  He  never  ap 
peals  to  any  vulgar  sentiment,  he  never  alludes  to 
the  humbleness  of  his  origin  ;  it  probably  never  oc° 


34  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

curred  to  him,  indeed,  that  there  was  anything  higher 
to  start  from  than  manhood ;  and  he  put  himself  on  a 
level  with  those  he  addressed,  not  by  going  down  to 
them,  but  only  by  taking  it  for  granted  that  they  had 
brains  and  would  come  up  to  a  common  ground  of 
reason.  In  an  article  lately  printed  in  The  Nation^ 
Mr.  Bayard  Taylor  mentions  the  striking  fact,  that 
»in  the  foulest  dens  of  the  Five  Points  he  found  the 
portrait  of  Lincoln.  The  wretched  population  that 
makes  its  hive  there  threw  all  its  votes  and  more 
against  him,  and  yet  paid  this  instinctive  tribute  to 
the  sweet  humanity  of  his  nature.  There  ignorance 
sold  its  vote  and  took  its  money,  but  all  that  was  left 
of  manhood  in  them  recognized  its  saint  and  martyr. 
^  Mr.  Lincoln  is  not  in  the  habit  of  saying,  "  This  is 
my  opinion,  or  my  theory,"  but  "  This  is  the  conclu 
sion  to  which,  in  my  judgment,  the  time  has  come, 
and  to  which,  accordingly,  the  sooner  we  come  the 
better  for  us."  His  policy  has  been  the  policy  of 
public  opinion  based  on  adequate  discussion  and  on  a 
timely  recognition  of  the  influence  of  passing  events 
in  shaping  the  features  of  events  to  come. 
i  One  secret  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  remarkable  success  in 
captivating  the  popular  mind  is  undoubtedly  an  un 
consciousness  of  self  which  enables  him,  though  under 
the  necessity  of  constantly  using  the  capital  I,  to  do 
it  without  any  suggestion  of  egotism.  There  is  no 
single  vowel  which  men's  mouths  can  pronounce  with 
such  difference  of  effect.  That  which  one  shall  hide 
away,  as  it  were,  behind  the  substance  of  his  dis 
course,  or,  if  he  bring  it  to  the  front,  shall  use  merely 
to  give  an  agreeable  accent  of  individuality  to  what 
he  says,  another  shall  make  an  offensive  challenge  to 
the  self-satisfaction  of  all  his  hearers,  and  an  unwar* 


LOWELL'S  ESSAY.     \"  35 

ranted  intrusion  upon  each  man's  sense  of  personal 
importance,  irritating  every  pore  of  his  vanity,  like  a 
dry  northeast  wind,  to  a  goose-flesh  of  opposition  and 
hostility.  Mr.  Lincoln  has  never  studied  Quinti- 
lian ; 1  but  he  has,  in  the  earnest  simplicity  and  un 
affected  Americanism  of  his  own  character,  one  art 
of  oratory  worth  all  the  rest.  He  forgets  himself  so 
entirely  in  his  object  as  to  give  his  7  the  sympathetic 
and  persuasive  effect  of  We  with  the  great  body  of 
his  countrymen.  Homely,  dispassionate,  showing  all 
the  rough-edged  process  of  his  thought  as  it  goes 
along,  yet  arriving  at  his  conclusions  with  an  honest 
kind  of  every-day  logic,  he  is  so  eminently  our  repre 
sentative  man,  that,  when  he  speaks,  it  seems  as  if  the 
people  were  listening  to  their  own  thinking  aloud. 
The  dignity  of  his  thought  owes  nothing  to  any  cere 
monial  garb  of  words,  but  to  the  manly  movement 
that  comes  of  settled  purpose  and  an  energy  of  reason 
that  knows  not  what  rhetoric  means.  There  has  been 
nothing  of  Cleon,  still  less  of  Strepsiades  2  striving  to 
underbid  him  in  demagogism,  to  be  found  in  the  pub 
lic  utterances  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  has  always  ad 
dressed  the  intelligence  of  men,  never  their  prejudice, 
their  passion,  or  their  ignorance. 


27  On  the  day  of  his  death,  this  simple  Western  attor 
ney,  who  according  to  one  party  was  a  vulgar  joker, 
and  whom  the  doctrinaires  among  his  own  supporters 
accused  of  wanting  every  element  of  statesmanship, 
was  the  most  absolute  ruler  in  Christendom,  and  this 

1  A  famous  Latin  writer  on  the  Art  of  Oratory. 

2  Two  Athenian  demagogues,   satirized  by  tke  dramatist   Aristo 
phanes. 


36  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

solely  by  the  hold  his  good-humored  sagacity  had  laid 
on  the  hearts  and  understandings  of  his  countrymen. 
Nor  was  this  ail,  for  it  appeared  that  he  had  drawn 
the  great  majority,  not  only  pf  his  fellow-citizens,  but 
of  mankind  also,  to  his  sideA  So  strong  and  so  per 
suasive  is  honest  manliness  without  a  single  quality  of 
romance  or  unreal  sentiment  to  help  it !  j  A  civilian 
during  times  of  the  most  captivating  military  achieve 
ment,  awkward,  with  no  skill  in  the  lower  technicali 
ties  of  manners,  he  left  behind  him  a  fame  beyond 
that  of  any  conqueror,  the  memory  of  a  grace  higher 
than  that  of  outward  person,  and  of  a  gentlemanliness 
deeper  than  mere  breeding.  Never  before  that  star 
tled  April  morning  did  such  multitudes  of  men  shed 
tears  for  the  death  of  one  they  had  never  seen,  as  if 
with  him  a  friendly  presence  had  been  taken  away  from 
their  lives,  leaving  them  colder  and  darker.  Never 
was  funeral  panegyric  so  eloquent  as  the  silent  look  of 
sympathy  which  strangers  exchanged  when  they  met 
on  that  day.  Their  common  manhood  had  lost  a 
kinsman. 


I. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  SPEECH 

AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF   THE  NATIONAL    CEMETERY,  GETTYS 
BURG,    PENNSYLVANIA,  NOVEMBER    19,   1863. 

The  great  battles  fought  at  Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania,  in  July, 
18G3,  made  that  spot  historic  ground.  It  was  early  perceived 
that  the  battles  were  critical,  and  they  are  now  looked  upon  by 
many  as  the  turning-point  of  the  war  for  the  Union.  The 
ground  where  the  fiercest  conflict  raged  was  taken  for  a  national 
cemetery,  and  the  dedication  of  the  place  was  made  an  occasion 
of  great  solemnity.  The  orator  of  the  day  was  Edward  Everett, 
who  was  regarded  as  the  most  finished  public  speaker  in  the 
country.  Mr.  Everett  made  a  long  and  eloquent  address,  and 
was  followed  by  the  President  in  a  little  speech  which  instan 
taneously  affected  the  country,  whether  people  were  educated  or 
unlettered,  as  a  great  speech.  The  impression  created  has  deep 
ened  with  time.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  in  his  essay  on  Elo 
quence  says  :  "  I  believe  it  to  be  true  that  when  any  orator  at  the 
bar  or  the  Senate  rises  in  his  thought,  he  descends  in  his  lan 
guage,  that  is,  when  he  rises  to  any  height  of  thought  or  passion, 
he  comes  down  to  a  language  level  with  the  ear  of  all  his  au 
dience.  It  is  the  merit  of  John  Brown  and  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
• —  one  at  Charlestown,  one  at  Gettysburg  —  in  the  two  best 
specimens  of  eloquence  we  have  had  in  this  country." 

It  is  worth  while  to  listen  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  account  of  the 
education  which  prepared  him  for  public  speaking.  Before  he 
was  nominated  for  the  presidency  he  had  attracted  the  notice  of 
people  by  a  remarkable  contest  in  debate  with  a  famous  Illinois 
statesman,  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  As  a  consequence  Mr. 
Lincoln  received  a  great  many  invitations  to  speak  in  the  East 
ern  States,  and  made,  among  others,  a  notable  speech  at  the 
Cooper  Union,  New  York.  Shortly  after,  he  spoke  also  at  New 
Haven,  and  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Gulliver  in  a  paper  in  the  N?.w  York 


38  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Independent,  Sept.  1,  1864,  thus  reports  a  conversation  which  he 
held  with  him  when  traveling  in  the  same  railroad  car  :  — 

"  '  Ah,  that  reminds  me,'  he  said,  '  of  a  most  extraordinary 
circumstance,  which  occurred  in  New  Haven,  the  other  day. 
They  told  me  that  the  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Yale  College  — 
a  very  learned  man,  is  n't  he  ?  '  *  Yes,  sir,  and  a  very  fine  critic, 
too.'  *  Well,  I  suppose  so  ;  he  ought  to  be,  at  any  rate  —  They 
told  me  that  he  came  to  hear  me  and  took  notes  of  my  speech, 
and  gave  a  lecture  on  it  to  his  class  the  next  day  ;  and, ,  not  satis 
fied  with  that,  he  followed  me  up  to  Meriden  the  next  evening, 
and  heard  me  again  for  the  same  purpose.  Now,  if  this  is  so,  it 
is  to  my  mind  very  extraordinary.  I  have  been  sufficiently  as 
tonished  at  my  success  in  the  West.  It  has  been  most  unex 
pected.  But  I  had  no  thought  of  any  marked  success  at  the  East, 
and  least  of  all  that  I  should  dra\^out  such  commendations  from 
literary  and  learned  men  ! ' 

" '  That  suggests,  Mr.  Lincoln,  an  inquiry  which  has  several 
times  been  upon  my  lips  during  this  conversation.  I  want  very 
much  to  know  how  you  got  this  unusual  power  of  "  putting 
things."  It  must  have  been  a  matter  of  education.  No  man 
has  it  by  nature  alone.  What  has  your  education  been  ? ' 

"  '  Well,  as  to  education,  the  newspapers  are  correct.  I  never 
went  to  school  more  than  six  months  in  my  life.  But,  as  you 
say,  this  must  be  a  product  of  culture  in  some  form.  I  have 
been  putting  the  question  you  ask  me  to  myself  while  you  have 
been  talking.  I  say  this,  that  among  my  earliest  recollections,  I 
remember  how,  when  a  mere  child,  I  used  to  get  irritated  when 
anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I  could  not  understand.  I  don't 
think  I  ever  got  angry  at  anything  else  in  my  life.  But  that  al 
ways  disturbed  my  temper,  and  has  eter  since.  I  can  remember 
going  to  my  little  bedroom,  after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of 
an  evening  with  my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of  the 
night  walking  up  and  down,  and  trying  to  make  out  what  was 
the  exact  meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings.  I  could 
not  sleepj  though  I  often  tried  ticy'  when  I  got  on  such  a  hunt  af 
ter  an  idea,  until  I  had  caught  it  ;  and  when  I  thought  I  had  got 
it,  I  was  not  satisfied  until  I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over,  until 
I  had  put  it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy 
I  knew  to  comprehend.  This  was  a  kind  of  passion  with  me, 
and  it  has  stuck  by  me,  for  I  am  never  easy  now,  when  I  am 
handling  a  thought,  till  I  have  bounded  it  north  and  bounded  it 


GETTYSBURG  SPEECH.  39 

south  and  bounded  it  east  and  bounded  it  west.  Perhaps  that 
accounts  for  the  characteristic  you  observe  in  my  speeches, 
though  I  never  put  the  two  things  together  before.'  "  But  to  the 
speech  itself. 

FOURSCORE  and  seven  years  ago,  our  fathers  brought 
forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  lib 
erty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great 
civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation 
so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We 
are  met  on  a  great  battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have 
come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  rest 
ing-place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that 
nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper 
that  we  should  do  this.  But  in  a  larger  sense  we  .can 
not  dedicate,  we  cannot  consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow 
this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who 
struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far  aboye  our  poor 
power  to  add. or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note, 
nor  long  remember,  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never 
forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living, 
rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work 
which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  ad 
vanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to 
the  great  task  remaining  before  us,  -V  that  from  these 
honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause 
for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion, 
— that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not 
have  died  in  vain,  -f-  that  this  nation,  under  God,  shall 
have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  —  and  that  government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth. 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

'     II. 

THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  oath  ol 
office  as  President  of  the  United  States,  and  then  from  the  eas$ 
portico  of  the  Capitol  delivered  to  an  immense  throng  his  in* 
augural  address.  He  had  written  it  before  coming  to  Washing, 
ton,  and  had  asked  criticism  upon  it  from  a  few  prominent  men, 
among  them  William  H.  Seward,  who  was  looked  upon  by  most 
as  the  great  Republican  statesman  of  the  day.  The  criticism  of 
these  men  was  considered  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  in  some  instances 
used  to  modify  his  address.  The  most  interesting  change  was 
due  to  Mr.  Seward's  advice  that  "  some  words  of  affection,  some 
of  calm  and  cheerful  confidence  should  be  added."  To  make  his 
meaning  clear,  Mr.  Seward  drew  up  a  paragraph  for  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  use  if  he  chose  to  take  it.  Mr.  Lincoln  liked  the  thought, 
but  his  style  differed  from  Mr.  Seward's,  and  he  rewrote  the 
paragraph  in  his  own  words.  For  the  sake  of  comparison,  Mr. 
Seward's  paragraph  is  given  in  a  foot-note  at  the  proper  place. 
He  wrote  full,  sonorous  English,  Mr.  Lincoln  terse,  nervous,  di 
rect  speech,  and  the  contrast  between  the  two  is  very  striking. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  :  In 
compliance  with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  Government  it 
self,  I  appear  before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to 
take  in  your  presence  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  to  be  taken  by  the  Presi 
dent  "before  he  enters  on  the  execution  of  his  office." 

I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  at  present  for  me  to 
discuss  those  matters  of  administration  about  which 
there  is  no  special  anxiety  or  excitement. 

Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of 
the  Southern  States  that  by  the  accession  of  a  Repub 
lican  Administration  their  property  and  their  peace 
and  personal  security  are  to  be  endangered.  There 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.         41 

has  never  been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  appre 
hension.  Indeed,  the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  con 
trary  has  all  the  while  existed  and  been  open  to  their 
inspection.  It  is  found  in  nearly  all  the  published 
speeches  of  him  who  now  addresses  you.  I  do  but 
quote  from  one  of  those  speeches  when  I  declare  that" 
*'  I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere 
*,vith  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it 
exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I 
have  no  inclination  to  do  so."  Those  who  nominated 
and  elected  me  did  so  with  full  knowledge  that  I  had 
made  this  and  many  similar  declarations,  and  had 
never  recanted  them.  And,  more  than  this,  they 
placed  in  the  platform  for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a 
law  to  themselves  and  to  me,  the  clear  and  emphatic 
resolution  which  I  now  read : 

"  Resolved,  that  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the 
rights  of  the  States,  and  especially  the  right  of  each 
State  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institu 
tions  according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  es 
sential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfec 
tion  and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend,  and 
we  denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of 
the  soil  of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under 
what  pretext,  as  among  the  gravest  of  crimes." 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments  ;  and,  in  doing  so7 
1  only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most  con 
clusive  evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that 
the  property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  to 
be  in  any  wise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  Ad 
ministration.  I  add,  too,  that  all  the  protection  which, 
consistently  with  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  can 
be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States 
when  lawfully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause  —  as 
cheerfully  to  one  section,  as  to  another. 


42  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

There  is  much  controversy  about  the  delivering"  up 
of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor.  The  clause  I  now 
read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution  as  any 
other  of  its  provisions  : 

"  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State, 
tinder  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in 
•consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  dis° 
charged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  deliv 
ered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or 
labor  may  be  due." 

It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was  in 
tended  by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of 
what  we  call  fugitive  slaves  ;  and  the  intention  of  the 
lawgiver  is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear 
their  support  to  the  whole  Constitution  —  to  this  pro 
vision  as  much  as  to  any  other.  To  the  proposition, 
then,  that  slaves,  whose  cases  come  within  the  terms 
of  this  clause,  "  shall  be  delivered  up  "  their  oaths  are 
unanimous.  Now,  if  they  would  make  the  effort  in 
good  temper,  couid  they  not,  with  nearly  equal  unanim 
ity,  frame  and  pass  a  law  by  means  of  which  to  keep 
good  that  unanimous  oath? 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  whether  this 
clause  should  be  enforced  by  national  or  by  State  au 
thority  ;  but  surely  that  difference  is  not  a  very  mate 
rial  one.  If  the  slave  is  to  be  surrendered,  it  can  be 
of  but  little  consequence  to  him,  or  to  others,  by  which 
authority  it  is  done.  And  should  any  one,  in  any 
case,  be  content  that  his  oath  shall  go  unkept,  on  a 
merely  unsubstantial  controversy  as  to  how  it  shall  be 
kept? 

Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all 
the  safeguards  of  liberty  known  in  civilized  and  hu 
mane  jurisprudence  to  be  introduced  so  that  a  free 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.          43 

man  be  not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave  ?  And 
might  it  not  be  well  at  the  same  time  to  provide  by 
law  for  the  enforcement  of  that  clause  in  the  Consti 
tution  which  guarantees  that  "  the  citizen  of  each 
State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities 
of  citizens  in  the  several  States"  ? 

I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reser-* 
vations  and  with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitu 
tion  or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules.  And  while  1 
do  not  choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Con 
gress  as  proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it 
will  be  much  safer  for  all,  both  in  official  and  private 
stations,  to  conform  to  and  abide  by  all  those  acts 
which  stand  unrepealed,  than  to  violate  any  of  them 
trusting  to  find  impunity  in  having  them  held  to  be 
unconstitutional. 

It  is  seventy-two  years  since  the  first  inauguration 
of  a  President  under  our  National  Constitution.  Dur 
ing  that  period  fifteen  different  and  greatly  distin 
guished  citizens  have,  in  succession,  administered  the 
Executive  branch  of  the  Government.  They  have 
conducted  it  through  many  perils,  and  generally  with 
great  success.  Yet,  with  all  this  scope  of  precedent, 
I  now  enter  upon  the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitu 
tional  term  of  four  years,  under  great  and  peculiar 
difficulty.  A  disruption  of  the  Federal  Union,  hereto 
fore  only  menaced,  is  now  formidably  attempted. 

I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law,  and 
of  the  Constitution,  the  union  of  these  States  is  per-= 
petual.  Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the 
fundamental  law  of  all  national  governments.  It  is 
safe  to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had  a 
provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termination. 
Continue  to  execute  all  the  express  provisions  of  our 


44  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

National  Constitution,  and  the  Union  will  endure  for. 
ever  —  it  being  impossible  to  destroy  it  except  by  some 
action  not  provided  for  in  the  instrument  itself. 

Again,  if  the  United  States  be  not  a  government 
proper,  but  an  association  of  States  in  the  nature  of 
contract  merely,  can  it,  as  a  contract,  be  peaceably  un 
made  by  less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it  ?  One 
party  to  a  contract  may  violate  it  —  break  it,  so  tc 
speak,  but  does  it  not  require  all  to  lawfully  rescind 
it? 

Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find 
the  proposition  that,  in  legal  contemplation,  the  Union 
is  perpetual,  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Union 
itself.  The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitu 
tion.  It  was  formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Asso 
ciation  in  1774.  It  was  matured  and  continued  by 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776.  It  was 
further  matured,  and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  thirteen 
States  expressly  plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should 
be  perpetual,  by  the  Articles  of  Confederation  in  1778 . 
And  finally,  in  1787,  one  of  the  declared  objects  for 
ordaining  and  establishing  the  Constitution  was,  "  to 
form  a  more  perfect  Union" 

But  if  destruction  of  the  Union  by  one,  or  by  a  part 
only,  of  the  States  be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union  is 
less  perfect  than  before  the  Constitution,  having  lost 
the  vital  element  of  perpetuity. 

It  follows  from  these  views,  that  no  State,  upcn  its 
own  mere  motion,  can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union ; 
that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that  effect  are  legally 
void  ;  and  that  acts  of  violence,  within  any  State  or 
States,  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are 
insurrectionary  or  revolutionary,  according  to  circum 
stances. 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.          45 

I  therefore  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitu 
tion  and  the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken  ;  and  to  tho 
extent  of  my  ability,  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitu 
tion  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of 
the  Union  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States. 
Doing  this  I  deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my 
part ;  and  I  shall  perform  it,  so  far  as  practicable,  un 
less  my  rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall 
withhold  the  requisite  means,  or  in  some  authoritative 
manner  direct  the  contrary.  I  trust  this  will  not  be 
regarded  as  a  menace,  but  only  as  the  declared  pur 
pose  of  the  Union  that  it  will  constitutionally  defend 
and  maintain  itself. 

In  doing  this  there  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or  vio 
lence  ;  and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  national  authority.  The  power  confided  to 
me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  prop 
erty  and  places  belonging  to  the  Government,  and  to 
collect  the  duties  and  imposts  ;  but  beyond  what  may 
be  necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  inva 
sion,  110  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people 
anywhere.  Where  hostility  to  the  United  States,  in 
any  interior  locality,  shall  be  so  great  and  universal 
as  to  prevent  competent  resident  citizens  from  holding 
the  Federal  offices,  there  will  be  no  attempt  to  force 
obnoxious  strangers  among  the  people  for  that  object. 
While  the  strict  legal  right  may  exist  in  the  Govern 
ment  to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices,  the  at 
tempt  to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so  nearly 
impracticable  withal,  that  I  deem  it  better  to  forego 
for  the  time  the  uses  of  such  offices. 

The  mails,  unless  repelled,  will  continue  to  be  fur 
nished  in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  So  far  as  possible, 
the  people  everywhere  shall  have  that  sense  of  perfect 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

security  which  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thought  and 
reflection.  The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed 
unless  current  events  and  experience  shall  show  a  mod* 
ification  or  change  to  be  proper,  and  in  every  case  and 
exigency  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised  accord 
ing  to  circumstances  actually  existing,  and  with  a  view 
and  a  hope  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  national 
troubles,  and  the  restoration  of  fraternal  sympathies 
and  affections. 

That  there  are  persons  in  one  section  or  another  who 
seek  to  destroy  the  Union  at  all  events,  and  are  glad 
of  any  pretext  to  do  it,  I  will  neither  affirm  nor  deny ; 
but  if  there  be  such,  I  need  address  no  word  to  them. 
To  those,  however,  who  really  love  the  Union,  may  I 
not  speak  ? 

Before  entering  upon  so  grave  a  matter  as  the  de 
struction  of  our  national  fabric,  with  all  its  benefits, 
its  memories,  and  its  hopes,  would  it  not  be  wise  to  as 
certain  precisely  why  we  do  it  ?  Will  you  hazard  so 
desperate  a  step  while  there  is  any  possibility  that  any 
portion  of  the  ills  you  fly  from  have  no  real  exist 
ence  ?  Will  you,  while  the  certain  ills  you  fly  to  are 
greater  than  all  the  real  ones  you  fly  from  —  will  you 
risk  the  commission  of  so  fearful  a  mistake  ? 

All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union,  if  all  consti 
tutional  rights  can  be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  then, 
that  any  right,  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution, 
has  been  denied  ?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human 
mind  is  so  constituted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the 
audacity  of  doing  this.  Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single 
instance  in  which  a  plainly  written  provision  of  the 
Constitution  has  ever  been  denied.  If,  by  the  mere 
force  of  numbers,  a  majority  should  deprive  a  minor 
ity  of  any  clearly  written  constitutional  right,  it  might, 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.         47 

in  a  moral  point  of  view,  justify  revolution  —  certainly 
would,  if  such  right  were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is  not 
our  case.  All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of  in 
dividuals  are  so  plainly  assured  to  them  by  affirma 
tions  and  negations,  guarantees  and  prohibitions,  in  the 
Constitution,  that  controversies  never  arise  concerning 
them.  But  no  organic  law  can  ever  be  framed  with 
a  provision  specifically  applicable  to  every  question 
which  may  occur  in  practical  administration.  No  fore 
sight  can  anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reasonable 
length  contain,  express  provisions  for  all  possible 
questions.  Shall  fugitives  from  labor  be  surrendered 
by  national  or  by  State  authority  ?  The  Constitution 
does  not  expressly  say.  May  Congress  prohibit  slav 
ery  in  the  Territories  ?  The  Constitution  does  not  ex< 
pressly  say.  Must  Congress  protect  slavery  in  the 
Territories  ?  The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 

From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  constitu 
tional  controversies,  and  we  divide  upon  them  into  ma 
jorities  and  minorities.  If  the  minority  will  not  acqui 
esce,  the  majority  must,  or  the  Government  must  cease. 
There  is  no  other  alternative  ;  for  continuing  the  Gov 
ernment  is  acquiescence  op  ope  side  or  the  other.  If  a 
minority  in  such  case  will  secede  rather  than  acquiesce, 
they  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn  will  divide  and 
ruin  them  ;  for  a  minority  of  their  own  will  secede 
from  them  whenever  a  majority  refuses  to  be  con« 
trolled  by  such  minority.  For  instance,  why  may  noi 
any  portion  of  a  new  confederacy,  a  year  or  two  hence, 
arbitrarily  secede  again,  precisely  as  portions  of  the 
present  Union  now  claim  to  secede  from  it  ?  All  who 
cherish  disunion  sentiments  are  now  being  educated  to 
the  exact  temper  of  doing  this. 

Is  there  such  perfect  identity  of  interests  among  the 


48  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

States  to  compose  a  new  Union  as  to  produce  harmony 
only,  and  prevent  renewed  secession  ? 

Plainly,  the  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence 
of  anarchy.  A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitu 
tional  checks  and  limitations,  and  always  changing 
easily  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular  opinions  and 
sentiments,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people. 
Whoever  rejects  it  does,  of  necessity,  fly  to  anarchy  or 
to  despotism.  Unanimity  is  impossible  ;  the  rule  of  a 
minority,  as  a  permanent  arrangement,  is  wholly  in 
admissible  ;  so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  principle, 
anarchy  or  despotism  in  some  form  is  all  that  is  left. 

I  do  not  forget  the  position,  assumed  by  some,  that 
constitutional  questions  are  to  be  decided  by  the  Su 
preme  Court ;  nor  do  I  deny  that  such  decisions  must 
be  binding,  in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a  suit,  as 
to  the  object  of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also  entitled 
to  very  high  respect  and  consideration  in  all  parallel 
cases  by  all  other  departments  of  the  Government. 
And  while  it  is  obviously  possible  that  such  decision 
may  be  erroneous  in  any  given  case,  still  the  evil  effect 
following  it,  being  limited  to  that  particular  case,  with 
the  chance  that  it  may  be  overruled,  and  never  be 
come  a  precedent  for  other  cases,  can  better  be  borne 
than  could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice.  At  the 
same  time,  the  candid  citizen  must  confess  that  if  the 
policy  of  the  Government,  upon  vital  questions  affect 
ing  the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  de 
cisions  of  the  Supreme  Cour.t,  the  instant  they  are 
made  in  ordinary  litigation  between  parties  in  per 
sonal  actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased  to  be  their 
own  rulers,  having  to  that  extent  practically  resigned 
their  government  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribu« 
nal.  Nor  is  there  in  this  view  any  assault  upon  the 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.          49 

court  or  the  judges.  It  is  a  duty  from  which  they 
may  not  shrink  to  decide  cases  properly  brought  be 
fore  them,  and  it  is  no  fault  of  theirs  if  others  seek  to 
turn  their  decisions  to  political  purposes. 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  Slavery  is  right, 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it 
is  wrong ',  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the 
only  substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive-slave  clause  of 
the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the 
foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps, 
as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the  law  itself. 
The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal 
obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each. 
This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured  ;  and  it  would 
be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separation  of  the  sec 
tions,  than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade,  now  im 
perfectly  suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived  with 
out  restriction  in  one  section ;  while  fugitive  slaves, 
now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surren 
dered  at  all  by  the  other. 

Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  can 
not  remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other, 
nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  hus 
band  and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the 
presence  and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other ;  but  the 
different  parts  of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They 
cannot  but  remain  face  to  face,  and  intercourse,  either 
amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is 
it  possible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  ad 
vantageous  or  more  satisfactory  after  separation  than 
before  ?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
can  make  laws  ?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  en 
forced  between  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends? 


50  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight  always ;  and 
when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on 
either,  you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions 
as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the 
people  who  inhabit  it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow 
weary  of  the  existing  Government  they  can  exercise 
their  constitutional  right  of  amending  it,  or  their  rev 
olutionary  right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I 
cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  many  worthy  and 
patriotic  citizens  are  desirous  of  having  the  National 
Constitution  amended.  While  I  make  no  recommenda 
tion  of  amendments,  I  fully  recognize  the  rightful  au 
thority  of  the  people  over  the  whole  subject,  to  be  ex 
ercised  in  either  of  the  modes  prescribed  in  the  instru 
ment  itself ;  and  I  should,  under  existing  circumstan 
ces,  favor  rather  than  oppose  a  fair  opportunity  being 
afforded  the  people  to  act  upon  it.  I  will  venture  to 
add,  that  to  me  the  convention  mode  seems  preferable, 
in  that  it  allows  amendments  to  originate  with  the 
people  themselves,  instead  of  only  permitting  them  to 
take  or  reject  propositions  originated  by  others,  not 
especially  chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  which  might  not 
be  precisely  such  as  they  would  wish  to  either  accept 
or  refuse.  I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  —  which  amendment,  however,  I  have 
not  seen  —  has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Federal  Government  shall  never  interfere  with  the  do 
mestic  institutions  of  the  States,  including  that  of  per 
sons  held  to  service.  To  avoid  misconstruction  of 
what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose,  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments,  so  far  as  to  say  that, 
holding  such  a  provision  to  now  be  implied  constitu 
tional  law,  I  have  no  objections  to  its  being  made  ex 
press  and  irrevocable. 


THE  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.          51 

The  Chief  Magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from 
the  people,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon  him  to 
fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States.  The  people 
themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose;  but  the 
Executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His  duty 
is  to  administer  the  present  Government,  as  it  came  to 
his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by  him,  to 
his  successor. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  justice  of  the  people  ?  Is  there  any  better  or 
equal  hope  in  the  world  ?  In  our  present  differences 
is  either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right  ?  If 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his  eternal  truth 
and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours 
of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely 
prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the 
American  people. 

By  the  frame  of  the  Government  under  which  we 
live,  this  same  people  have  wisely  given  their  public 
servants  but  little  power  for  mischief ;  and  have,  with 
equal  wisdom,  provided  for  the  return  of  that  little  to 
their  own  hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While  the 
people  retain  their  virtue  and  vigilance,  no  adminis 
tration,  by  any  extreme  of  wickedness  or  folly,  can 
very  seriously  injure  the  Government  in  the  short 
space  of  four  years. 

My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be 
lost  by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry 
any  of  you,  in  hot  haste,  to  a  step  which  you  would 
never  take  deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated 
by  taking  time  ;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated 
by  it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied,  still  have 
the  old  Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitiye 


62  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

point,  the  laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it ;  while 
the  new  Administration  will  have  no  immediate  power, 
if  it  would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that 
you  who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dir> 
pute,  there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipi 
tate  action.  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and 
a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken 
this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the 
best  way,  all  our  present  difficulty. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen^ 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  Government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have 
no  conflict,  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors, 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy  th^ 
government,  while  /shall  have  the  most  solemn  one 
to  "  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it."  l 

I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion 
may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  af 
fection.  The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching 
from  every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave,  to  every  liv 
ing  heart  and  hearth-stone,  all  over  this  broad  land, 

1  The  original  draft,  after  the  words  "  preserve,  protect,  arid  de 
fend  it,"  concluded  as  follows,  addressing-  itself  to  "  my  dissatisfied 
fellow-countrymen  "  :  "  You  can  forbear  the  assault  upon  it,  I  cannot 
shrink  from  the  defense  of  it.  With  you,  and  not  with  me,  is  the  sol 
emn  question  of  '  Shall  it  be  peace  or  a  sword  ?  ' " 

Mr.  Seward  submitted  two  separate  drafts  for  a  closing  paragraph. 
The  second  of  these,  containing  the  thought  adopted  by  Mr.  Lincoln, 
was  as  follows :  — 

"I  close.  We  are  not,  we  must  not  be,  aliens  or  enemies,  but  fel 
low-countrymen  and  brethren.  Although  passion  has  strained  our 
bonds  of  affection  too  hardly,  they  must  not,  I  am  sure  they  will  not, 
be  broken.  The  mystic  chords  which,  proceeding  from  so  many  bat 
tlefields  and  so  many  patriot  graves,  pass  through  all  the  hearts  and 
all  hearths  in  \,>ns  broad  continent  of  ours,  will  yet  again  hPT%monize  in 
their  ancient  music  when  breathed  upon  by  the  guardian  angel  of  th« 
nation." 


LETTER  TO  HORACE  GREELEY.     53 

will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of 
our  nature. 


III. 
LETTER  TO  HORACE  GREELEY. 

The  Administration,  during  the  early  months  of  the  War  for 
the  Union,  was  greatly  perplexed  as  to  the  proper  mode  of 
dealing  with  slavery,  especially  in  the  districts  occupied  by  the 
Union  forces.  In  the  summer  of  1862,  when  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  earnestly  contemplating  his  Proclamation  of  Emancipation, 
Horace  Greeley,  the  leading  Republican  editor,  published  in  his 
paper,  the  New  York  Tribune,  a  severe  article  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  President,  taking  him  to  task  for  failing 
to  meet  the  just  expectations  of  twenty  millions  of  loyal  people. 
Thereupon  Mr.  Lincoln  sent  him  the  following  letter  :  — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON, 
August  22,  1862. 

HON.  HORACE  GREELEY.  —  Dear  Sir :  I  have  just 
read  yours  of  the  19th,  addressed  to  myself  through 
the  New  York  Tribune.  If  there  be  in  it  any  state 
ments  or  assumptions  of  fact  which  I  may  know  to  be 
erroneous,  I  do  not  now  and  here  controvert  them.  If 
there  be  in  it  any  inferences  which  I  may  believe  to  be 
falsely  drawn,  I  do  not  now  and  here  argue  against 
them.  If  there  be  perceptible  in-  it  an  impatient  and 
dictatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old 
friend,  whose  heart  I  have  always  supposed  to  be  right. 

As  to  the  policy  I  "  seem  to  be  pursuing,"  as  you 
say,  I  have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt. 

I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in  the 
shortest  way  under  the  Constitution.  The  sooner  the 
National  authority  can  be  restored,  the  nearer  the 


54  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Union  will  be  "  The  Union  as  it  was."  If  there  be 
those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could 
at  the  same  time  destroy  Slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with 
them.  My  paramount  object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save 
the  Union  and  is  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  Slavery. 
If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I 
would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the 
slaves,  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that. 
What  I  do  about  Slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do 
because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union ;  and 
what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it 
would  help  to  save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  /ess,  when 
ever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause ; 
and  I  shall  do  more,  whenever  I  shall  believe  doing 
more  will  help  the  cause.  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors 
when  shown  to  be  errors  ;  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views 
so  fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true  views.  I  have 
here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my  view  of  offi 
cial  duty,  and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft-ex 
pressed  personal  wish  that  all  men,  everywhere,  could 
be  free.  Yours,  A.  LINCOLN. 


IV. 

REPLY  TO   A  COMMITTEE. 

While  the  President  was  considering  seriously  the  proposal  to 
Issue  a  proclamation  of  emancipation,  he  was  naturally  urged 
by  many  to  take  such  a  step  and  by  many  not  to  take  it.  The 
following  reply  to  a  committee  from  the  religious  denomina 
tions  of  Chicago,  which  waited  on  him  September  13,  1862, 
urging  him  to  issue  the  proclamation,  is  a  good  example  of  how 
the  President  was  in  the  habit  of  thinking  aloud  and  stating 


REPLY  TO  A    COMMITTEE.  55 

both  sides  of  a  question,  even  when  he  had  practically  made  up 
his  mind. 

THE  subject  presented  in  the  memorial  is  one  upon 
which  I  have  thought  much  for  weeks  past,  and  I  may 
even  say  for  months.  I  am  approached  with  the  most 
opposite  opinions  and  advice,  and  that  by  religious 
men  who  are  equally  certain  that  they  represent  the 
divine  will.  I  am  sure  that  either  the  one  or  the  other 
class  is  mistaken  in  that  belief,  and  perhaps  in  some 
respects  both.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  irreverent  for  me 
to  say  that  if  it  is  probable  that  God  would  reveal  his 
will  to  others  on  a  point  so  connected  with  my  duty, 
it  might  be  supposed  He  would  reveal  it  directly  to 
me  ;  for,  unless  I  am  more  deceived  in  myself  than  I 
often  am,  it  is  my  earnest  desire  to  know  the  will  of 
Providence  in  this  matter.  And  if  I  can  learn  what 
it  is,  I  will  do  it.  These  are  not,  however,  the  days 
of  miracles,  and  I  suppose  it  will  be  granted  that  I 
am  not  to  expect  a  direct  revelation.  I  must  study 
the  plain  physical  facts  of  the  case,  ascertain  what  is 
possible,  and  learn  what  appears  to  be  wise  and  right. 

The  subject  is  difficult,  and  good  men  do  not 
agree.  For  instance,  the  other  day  four  gentlemen 
of  standing  and  intelligence  from  New  York  called 
as  a  delegation  on  business  connected  with  the  war ; 
but,  before  leaving,  two  of  them  earnestly  beset  me  to 
proclaim  general  emancipation,  upon  which  the  other 
two  at  once  attacked  them.  You  know  also  that  the 
last  session  of  Congress  had  a  decided  majority  of 
anti-slavery  men,  yet  they  could  not  unite  on  this 
policy.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the  religious  people. 
Why,  the  rebel  soldiers  are  praying  with  a  great  deal 
more  earnestness,  I  fear,  than  our  own  troops,  and 
expecting  God  to  favor  their  side ;  for  one  of  our  sol- 


56  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

diers  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  told  Senator  Wil 
son  a  few  days  since  that  he  met  with  nothing  so 
discouraging  as  the  evident  sincerity  of  those  he  was 
among  in  their  prayers.  But  we  will  talk  over  the 
merits  of  the  case. 

What  good  would  a  proclamation  of  emancipation 
from  me  do,  especially  as  we  are  now  situated  ?  I  do 
not  want  to  issue  a  document  that  the  whole  world 
will  see  must  necessarily  be  inoperative,  like  the 
Pope's  bull  against  the  comet.  Would  my  word  free 
the  slaves,  when  I  cannot  even  enforce  the  Constitu 
tion  in  the  rebel  States  ?  Is  there  a  single  court,  or 
magistrate,  or  individual  that  would  be  influenced  by 
it  there  ?  And  what  reason  is  there  to  think  it  would 
have  any  greater  effect  upon  the  slaves  than  the  late 
law  of  Congress,  which  I  approved,  and  which  offers 
protection  and  freedom  to  the  slaves  of  rebel  masters 
who  come  within  our  lines  ?  Yet  I  cannot  learn  that 
that  law  has  caused  a  single  slave  to  come  over  to  us. 
And  suppose  they  could  be  induced  by  a  proclamation 
of  freedom  from  me  to  throw  themselves  upon  us, 
what  should  we  do  with  them  ?  How  can  we  feed 
and  care  for  such  a  multitude  ?  General  Butler  wrote 
me  a  few  days  since  that  he  was  issuing  more  rations 
to  the  slaves  who  have  rushed  to  him  than  to  all  the 
white  troops  under  his  command.  They  eat,  and  that 
is  all ;  though  it  is  true  General  Butler  is  feeding  the 
whites  also  by  the  thousand,  for  it  nearly  amounts 
to  a  famine  there.  If,  now,  the  pressure  of  the  war 
should  call  off  our  forces  from  New  Orleans  to  defend 
some  other  point,  what  is  to  prevent  the  masters  from 
reducing  the  blacks  to  slavery  again  ?  For  I  am  told 
that  whenever  the  rebels  take  any  black  prisoners, 
free  or  slave,  they  immediately  auction  them  off. 


REPLY   TO  A    COMMITTEE.  57 

They  did  so  with  those  they  took  from  a  boat  that 
was  aground  in  the  Tennessee  River  a  few  days  ago. 
And  then  I  am  very  ungenerously  attacked  for  it ! 
For  instance,  when,  after  the  late  battles  at  and  near 
Bull  Run,  an  expedition  went  out  from  Washington 
under  a  flag  of  truce  to  bury  the  dead  and  bring  in 
the  wounded,  and  the  rebels  seized  the  blacks  who 
went  along  to  help,  and  sent  them  into  slaver}', 
Horace  Greeley  said  in  his  paper  that  the  govern 
ment  would  probably  do  nothing  about  it.  What 
could  I  do? 

Now,  then,  tell  me,  if  you  please,  what  possible 
result  of  good  would  follow  the  issuing  of  such  a  pro 
clamation  as  you  desire  ?  Understand,  I  raise  no  ob 
jections  against  it  on  legal  or  constitutional  grounds ; 
for,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  in 
time  of  war  I  suppose  I  have  a  right  to  take  any 
measure  which  may  best  subdue  the  enemy  ;  nor  do  I 
urge  objections  of  a  moral  nature,  in  view  of  possible 
consequences  of  insurrection  and  massacre  at  the 
South.  I  view  this  matter  as  a  practical  war  mea 
sure,  to  be  decided  on  according  to  the  advantages  or 
disadvantages  it  may  offer  to  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion. 

I  admit  that  slavery  is  the  root  of  the  rebellion,  or 
at  least  its  sine  qua  non.  The  ambition  of  politicians 
may  have  instigated  them  to  act,  but  they  would  have 
been  impotent  without  slavery  as  their  instrument. 
I  will  also  concede  that  emancipation  would  help  us 
in  Europe,  and  convince  them  that  we  are  incited  by 
something  more  than  ambition.  I  grant,  further,  that 
it  would  help  somewhat  at  the  North,  though  not  so 
much,  I  fear,  as  you  and  those  you  represent  imagine. 
Still,  some  additional  strength  would  be  added  in  that 


58  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

way  to  the  war,  and  then,  unquestionably,  it  would 
weaken  the  rebels  by  drawing  off  their  laborers,  which 
is  of  great  importance  ;  but  I  am  not  so  sure  we  could 
do  much  with  the  blacks.  If  we  were  to  arm  them, 
I  fear  that  in  a  few  weeks  the  arms  would  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  rebels  ;  and,  indeed,  thus  far  we  have 
not  had  arms  enough  to  equip  our  white  troops.  I 
will  mention  another  thing,  though  it  meet  only  your 
scorn  and  contempt.  There  are  fifty  thousand  bayo 
nets  in  the  Union  armies  from  the  border  slave  States. 
It  would  be  a  serious  matter  if,  in  consequence  of  a 
proclamation  such  as  you  desire,  they  should  go  over 
to  the  rebels.  I  do  not  think  they  all  would  —  not  so 
many,  indeed,  as  a  year  ago,  or  as  six  months  ago  — 
not  so  many  to-day  as  yesterday.  Every  day  increases 
their  Union  feeling.  They  are  also  getting  their  pride 
enlisted,  and  want  to  beat  the  rebels.  Let  me  say  one 
thing  more  :  I  think  you  should  admit  that  we  already 
have  an  important  principle  to  rally  and  unite  the 
people,  in  the  fact  that  constitutional  government  is 
at  stake.  This  is  a  fundamental  idea  going  down 
about  as  deep  as  anything. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me  because  I  have  mentioned 
these  objections.  They  indicate  the  difficulties  that 
have  thus  far  prevented  my  action  in  some  such  way 
as  you  desire.  I  have  not  decided  against  a  proclama 
tion  of  liberty  to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under 
advisement ;  and  I  can  assure  you  that  the  subject  is 
on  my  mind,  by  day  and  night,  more  than  any  other. 
Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do. 
I  trust  that  in  the  freedom  with  which  I  have  can 
vassed  your  views  I  have  not  in  any  respect  injured 
your  feelings. 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.      59 
V. 

THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION, 

Some  time  before  the  letter  to  Mr.  Greeley  was  written,  Lin 
coln  had  drawn  up  a  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  and  was  only 
waiting  for  a  suitable  hour  when  to  publish  it.  He  waited  until 
after  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  then,  on  the  22d  of  Septem 
ber,  1862,  issued  his  provisional  proclamation  in  which  he  sol 
emnly  declared  that  on  the  first  day  of  January  following  "  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  any  designated  part 
of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thenceforward  and  forever  free.'9 
The  announcement  drew  forth  only  bitter  response  from  the 
Confederacy,  and  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1863,  the  Presi 
dent  issued  the  final  proclamation  which  is  here  given.  The 
parts  of  the  South  excepted  in  the  proclamation  were  those  which 
were  loyal  or  were  occupied  by  Union  troops. 

WHEREAS,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  containing,  among  other 
things,  the  following,  to  wit :  — 

"  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  desig 
nated  part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be 
in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then, 
thenceforward  and  forever  free,  and  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mil 
itary  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no 
act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in 
any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

"  That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  Jam* 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ary  aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States 
and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof 
respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States  ;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  peo 
ple  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  repre 
sented  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by  mem* 
bers  chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of 
the  qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have  partici 
pated  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong  countervailing 
testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such 
State  and  the  people  thereof  are  not  then  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States  ; "  — 

JVow,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
as  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the 
United  States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion 
against  the  authority  of,  and  government  of  the 
United  States,  and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure 
for  suppressing  said  rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my 
purpose  so  to  do,  publicly  proclaimed  for  the  full  pe 
riod  of  one  hundred  days  from  the  day  first  above- 
mentioned,  order,  and  designate,  as  the  States  and 
parts  of  States  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively 
are  this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  the 
following,  to  wit :  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  except 
the  parishes  of  St.  Bernard,  Plaquemines,  Jefferson, 
St.  John,  St.  Charles,  St.  James,  Ascension,  Assump 
tion,  Terre  Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St.  Martin, 
and  Orleans,  including  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  Mis 
sissippi,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina, 
North  Carolina,  and  Virginia,  except  the  forty-eight 
counties  designated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the 
counties  of  Berkeley,  Accomac.  Northampton,  Eliza- 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.      Gl 

beth  City,  York,  Princess  Ann  and  Norfolk,  including 
the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth,  and  which  ex- 
cepted  parts  are,  for  the  present,  left  precisely  as  if 
this  proclamation  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid,  I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held, 
as  slaves  within  said  designated  States  and  parts  of 
States  are,  and  henceforward  shall  be  free  ;  and  that 
the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  in 
cluding  the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof,  will 
recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said  persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free,  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  neces 
sary  self-defense,  and  I  recommend  to  them,  that  in 
all  cases,  when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  rea 
sonable  wages. 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such 
persons  of  suitable  condition  will  be  received  into  the 
armed  service  of  the  United  States  to  garrison  forts, 
positions,  stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  ves 
sels  of  all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act 
of  justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon  mil 
itary  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of 
mankind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

In  Testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  name 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  Independence  of 
the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  PRESIDENT  : 
WILLIAM  H.  SE^ARD,  Secretary  of  St^e. 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


VI. 

ACCOUNT  OF  THF  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 

Mr.  Frank  B.  Carpenter  painted  a  large  historical  picture  of 
the  signing  of  the  proclamation,  which  is  now  in  the  capitol  at 
Washington.  While  working  on  it,  he  saw  much  of  the  Presi 
dent,  who  gave  him  the  following  account  in  conversation.  Mr. 
Carpenter  printed  the  account  in  his  Six  Months  at  the  White 
House. 

"  IT  had  got  to  be,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln, "  midsummer, 
1862.  Things  had  gone  on  from  bad  to  worse  until 
I  felt  that  we  had  reached  the  end  of  our  rope  on  the 
plan  of  operations  we  had  been  pursuing ;  that  we  had 
about  played  our  last  card,  and  must  change  our  tac 
tics  or  lose  the  game.  I  now  determined  upon  the 
adoption  of  the  emancipation  policy ;  and  without  con 
sultation  with  or  the  knowledge  of  the  Cabinet,  I 
prepared  the  original  draft  of  the  proclamation,  and, 
after  much  anxious  thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meet 
ing  upon  the  subject.  This  was  the  last  of  July  or 
the  first  part  of  the  month  of  August,  1862.  [The 
exact  date  was  July  22,  1862.]  .  .  .  All  were  present 
excepting  Mr.  Blair,  the  Postmaster-General,  who  was 
absent  at  the  opening  of  the  discussion,  but  came 
in  subsequently.  I  said  to  the  Cabinet  that  I  had 
resolved  upon  this  step,  and  had  not  called  them  to 
gether  to  ask  their  advice,  but  to  lay  the  subject- 
matter  of  a  proclamation  before  them,  suggestions  as 
to  which  would  be  in  order  after  they  had  heard  it 
read.  Mr.  Lovejoy  was  in  error  when  he  informed 
you  that  it  excited  no  comment  excepting  on  the 


THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.      63 

part  of  Secretary  Seward.  Various  suggestions  were 
offered.  Secretary  Chase  wished  the  language  stronger 
in  reference  to  the  arming  of  the  blacks. 

"  Mr.  Blair,  after  he  came  in,  deprecated  the  policy 
on  the  ground  that  it  would  cost  the  administration 
the  fall  elections.  Nothing,  however,  was  offered  that 
I  had  not  already  fully  anticipated  and  settled  in  my 
own  mind  until  Secretary  Seward  spoke.  He  said  in 
substance :  4  Mr.  President,  I  approve  of  the  procla 
mation,  but  I  question  the  expediency  of  its  issue  at 
this  juncture.  The  depression  of  the  public  mind, 
consequent  upon  our  repeated  reverses,  is  so  great 
that  I  fear  the  effect  of  so  important  a  step.  It  may 
be  viewed  as  the  last  measure  of  an  exhausted  gov 
ernment,  a  cry  for  help  ;  the  government  stretching 
forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia 
stretching  forth  her  hands  to  the  government.'  His 
idea,"  said  the  President,  "  was  that  it  would  be  con 
sidered  our  last  shriek  on  the  retreat.  [This  was  his 
precise  expression.]  '  Now,'  continued  Mr.  Seward, 
•  while  I  approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that  you 
postpone  its  issue  until  you  can  give  it  to  the  country 
supported  by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing  it, 
as  would  be  the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters 
of  the  war.'  '  Mr.  Lincoln  continued  :  "  The  wisdom 
of  the  view  of  the  Secretary  of  State  struck  me  with 
very  great  force.  It  was  an  aspect  of  the  case  that, 
in  all  my  thought  upon  the  subject,  I  had  entirely 
overlooked.  The  result  was,  that  I  put  the  draft  of 
the  proclamation  aside,  as  you  do  your  sketch  for  a 
picture,  waiting  for  a  victory. 

"  From  time  to  time  I  added  or  changed  a  line, 
touching  it  up  here  and  there,  anxiously  watching  the 
progress  of  events.  Well,  the  next  news  we  had 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

was  of  Pope's  disaster  at  Bull  Run.  Things  looked 
darker  than  ever.  Finally  came  the  week  of  the  bat 
tle  of  Antietam.  I  determined  to  wait  no  longer. 
The  news  came,  I  think,  on  Wednesday,  that  the 
advantage  was  on  our  side.  I  was  then  staying  at 
the  Soldier's  Home  (three  miles  out  of  Washington). 
Here  I  finished  writing  the  second  draft  of  the  pre 
liminary  proclamation,  came  up  on  Saturday,  called 
the  Cabinet  together  to  hear  it,  and  it  was  published 
on  the  following  Monday." 


LETTER   TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS.        65 


VII. 


LETTER  TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS. 

The  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was  received  with  great 
satisfaction  by  some,  with  discontent  by  others.  The  people  of 
the  North  were  by  no  means  unanimous  as  yet  upon  the  subject 
of  the  abolition  of  Slavery,  and  the  criticism  made  upon  the  Pres 
ident's  course  indicates  his  wide  acquaintance  with  public  senti 
ment,  by  which  he  was  enabled  to  act  in  crises,  neither  too  soon 
nor  too  late.  In  the  early  fall  of  1863  he  was  invited  to  meet 
his  old  neighbors  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  the  following  letter 
was  addressed  to  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Invitation  : — • 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON, 
August  26,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  Your  letter  inviting  me  to  attend 
a  mass  meeting  of  unconditional  Union  men,  to  be  held 
at  the  capital  of  Illinois  on  the  3d  day  of  September, 
has  been  received.  It  would  be  very  agreeable  to  me 
thus  to  meet  my  old  friends  at  my  own  home  ;  but  I 
cannot  just  now  be  absent  from  this  city  so  long  as  a 
visit  there  would  require. 

The  meeting  is  to  be  of  all  those  who  maintain  un 
conditional  devotion  to  the  Union  ;  and  I  am  sure  that 
my  old  political  friends  will  thank  me  for  tendering, 
as  I  do,  the  nation's  gratitude  to  those  other  noble 
men  whom  no  partisan  malice  or  partisan  hope  can 
make  false  to  the  nation's  life.  There  are  those  who 
are  dissatisfied  with  me.  To  such  I  wmild  say :  You 
desire  peace,  and  you  blame  me  that  we  do  not  have 
it.  But  how  can  we  attain  it  ?  There  are  but  three 
conceivable  ways  :  First,  to  suppress  the  rebellion  by 
force  of  arms.  This  I  am  trying  to  do.  Are  you  for 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

it  ?  If  you  are,  so  far  we  are  agreed.  If  you  are  not 
for  it,  a  second  way  is  to  give  up  the  Union.  I  am 
against  this.  If  you  are,  you  should  say  so,  plainly. 
If  you  are  not  for  force,  nor  yet  for  dissolution,  there 
only  remains  some  imaginable  compromise. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  compromise  embracing* 
the  maintenance  of  the  Union  is  now  possible.  All 
that  I  learn  leads  to  a  directly  opposite  belief.  The 
strength  of  the  rebellion  is  its  military  —  its  army0 
That  army  dominates  all  the  country  and  all  the  peo 
ple  within  its  range.  Any  offer  of  any  terms  made 
by  any  man  or  men  within  that  range  in  opposition  to 
that  army,  is  simply  nothing  for  the  present,  because 
such  man  or  men  have  no  power  whatever  to  enforce 
their  side  of  a  compromise,  if  one  were  made  with 
them.  To  illustrate :  Suppose  refugees  from  the 
South  and  peace  men  of  the  North  get  together  in  con 
vention,  and  frame  and  proclaim  a  compromise  em 
bracing  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  In  what  way 
can  that  compromise  be  used  to  keep  Gen.  Lee's  army 
out  of  Pennsylvania  ?  Gen.  Meade's  army  can  keep 
Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania,  and  I  think  can  ulti 
mately  drive  it  out  of  existence.  But  no  paper  com 
promise  to  which  the  controllers  of  Gen.  Lee's  army 
are  not  agreed,  can  at  all  affect  that  army.  In  an  ef 
fort  at  such  compromise  we  would  waste  time,  which 
the  enemy  would  improve  to  our  disadvantage,  and 
that  would  be  all.  A  compromise,  to  be  effective, 
must  be  made  either  with  those  who  control  the  Rebel 
army,  or  with  the  people,  first  liberated  from  the  dom 
ination  of  that  army  by  the  success  of  our  army.  Now, 
allow  me  to  assure  you  that  no  word  or  intimation 
from  the  Rebel  army,  or  from  any  of  the  men  control 
ling  it,  in  relation  to  any  peace  compromises,  has  ever 


LETTER   TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS.        6T 

come  to  my  knowledge  or  belief.  All  charges  and  in 
timations  to  the  contrary  are  deceptive  and  ground 
less.  And  I  promise  you  that  if  any  such  proposition 
shall  hereafter  come,  it  shall  not  be  rejected  and  kept 
secret  from  you.  I  freely  acknowledge  myself  to  be 
the  servant  of  the  people,  according  to  the  bond  of 
service,  the  United  States  Constitution ;  and  that,  as 
such,  I  am  responsible  to  them. 

But,  to  be  plain.  You  are  dissatisfied  with  me 
about  the  negro.  Quite  likely  there  is  a  difference  of 
opinion  between  you  and  myself  upon  that  subject.  I 
certainly  wish  that  all  men  could  be  free,  while  you,  I 
suppose^  do  not.  Yet  I  have  neither  adopted  nor  pro 
posed  any  measure  which  is  not  consistent  with  even 
your  view,  provided  you  are  for  the  Union.  I  sug 
gested  compensated  emancipation,  to  which  you  re 
plied  that  you  wished  not  to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes. 
But  I  have  not  asked  you  to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes, 
except  in  such  way  as  to  save  you  from  greater  taxa 
tion,  to  save  the  Union  exclusively  by  other  means. 

You  dislike  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and 
perhaps  would  have  it  retracted.  You  say  it  is  uncon 
stitutional.  I  think  differently.  I  think  that  the 
Constitution  invests  its  Commander-in-chief  with  the 
laws  of  war  in  the  time  of  war.  The  most  that  can  be 
said,  if  so  much,  is,  that  the  slaves  are  property.  Is 
there,  has  there  ever  been,  any  question  that  by  the 
law  of  war,  property,  both  of  enemies  and  friends,  may 
be  taken  when  needed  ?  And  is  it  not  needed  when 
ever  taking  it  helps  us  or  hurts  the  enemy  ?  Armies, 
the  world  over,  destroy  enemies'  property  when  they 
cannot  use  it ;  and  even  destroy  their  own  to  keep  it 
from  the  enemy.  Civilized  belligerents  do  all  in  their 
power  to  help  themselves  or  hurt  the  enemy,  except  a 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

few  things  regarded  as  barbarous  or  cruel.  Among 
the  exceptions  are  the  massacre  of  vanquished  foes 
and  non-combatants,  male  and  female.  But  the  proc 
lamation,  as  law,  is  valid  or  is  not  valid.  If  it  is  not 
valid,  it  needs  no  retraction.  If  it  is  valid,  it  cannot 
be  retracted,  any  more  than  the  dead  can  be  brought 
to  life.  Some  of  you  profess  to  think  that  its  retrac 
tion  would  operate  favorably  for  the  Union.  Why 
better  after  the  retraction  than  before  the  issue? 
There  was  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  of  trial  to  sup 
press  the  rebellion  before  the  proclamation  was  issued, 
the  last  one  hundred  days  of  which  passed  under  an 
explicit  notice,  that  it  was  coming  unless  averted  by 
those  in  revolt  returning  to  their  allegiance.  The 
war  has  certainly  progressed  as  favorably  for  us  since 
the  issue  of  the  proclamation  as  before.  I  know  as 
fully  as  one  can  know  the  opinions  of  others,  that  some 
of  the  commanders  of  our  armies  in  the  field,  who  have 
given  us  our  most  important  victories,  believe  the 
emancipation  policy  and  the  aid  of  colored  troops  con 
stitute  the  heaviest  blows  yet  dealt  to  the  rebellion, 
and  that  at  least  one  of  those  important  successes 
could  not  have  been  achieved  when  it  was  but  for  the 
aid  of  black  soldiers.  Among  the  commanders  hold 
ing  these  views  are  some  who  have  never  had  any 
affinity  with  what  is  called  abolitionism,  or  with  "  re 
publican  party  politics,"  but  who  hold  them  purely 
as  military  opinions.  I  submit  their  opinions  as  being 
entitled  to  some  weight  against  the  objections  often 
urged  that  emancipation  and  arming  the  blacks  are 
unwise  as  military  measures,  and  were  not  adopted  as 
such  in  good  faith. 

You  say  that  you   will  not  fight   to  free  negroes. 
Some  of  them  seem  to  be  willing  to  fight  for  you  — 


LETTER   TO  DISSATISFIED  FRIENDS.        69 

but  no  matter.  Fight  you,  then,  exclusively  to  save 
the  Union.  I  issued  the  proclamation  on  purpose  to 
aid  you  in  saving  the  Union.  Whenever  you  shall 
have  conquered  all  resistance  to  the  Union,  if  I  shall 
urge  you  to  continue  fighting,  it  will  be  an  apt  time 
then  for  you  to  declare  that  you  will  not  fight  to  free 
negroes.  I  thought  that,  in  your  struggle  for  the 
Union,  to  whatever  extent  the  negroes  should  cease 
helping  the  enemy,  to  that  extent  it  weakened  the 
enemy  in  his  resistance  to  you.  Do  you  think  differ 
ently  ?  I  thought  that  whatever  negroes  can  be  got 
to  do  as  soldiers  leaves  just  so  much  less  for  white 
soldiers  to  do  in  saving  the  Union.  Does  it  appear 
otherwise  to  you?  But  negroes,  like  other  people, 
act  upon  motives.  Why  should  they  do  anything  for 
us  if  we  will  do  nothing  for  them  ?  If  they  stake  their 
lives  for  us,  they  must  be  prompted  by  the  strongest 
motive,  even  the  promise  of  freedom.  And  the  prom 
ise,  being  made,  must  be  kept. 

The  signs  look  better.  The  Father  of  Waters  again 
goes  unvexed  to  the  sea.  Thanks  to  the  great  North 
west  for  it.  Nor  yet  wholly  to  them.  Three  hundred 
miles  up  they  met  New  England,  Empire,  Keystone, 
and  Jersey,  hewing  their  way  right  and  left.  The 
sunny  South,  too,  in  more  colors  than  one,  also  lent  a 
hand.  On  the  spot,  their  part  of  the  history  was  jotted 
down  in  black  and  white.  The  job  was  a  great  Na 
tional  one,  and  let  none  be  banned  who  bore  an  honor 
able  part  in  it ;  and  while  those  who  have  cleared  the 
great  river  may  well  be  proud,  even  that  is  not  all. 
It  is  hard  to  say  that  anything  has  been  more  bravely 
and  better  done  than  at  Antietam,  Murfreesboro, 
Gettysburg,  and  on  many  fields  of  less  note.  Nor 
must  Uncle  Sam's  web-feet  be  forgotten.  At  all  the 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

waters'  margins  they  have  been  present :  not  only  on 
the  deep  sea,  the  broad  bay  and  the  rapid  river,  but 
also  up  the  narrow,  muddy  bayou  ;  and  wherever  the 
ground  was  a  little  damp,  they  have  been  and  made 
their  tracks.  Thanks  to  all.  For  the  great  Republic 
—  for  the  principles  by  which  it  lives  and  keeps  alive 
— -  for  man's  vast  future  —  thanks  to  all.  Peace  does 
not  appear  so  far  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope  it  will 
come  soon,  and  come  to  stay :  and  so  come  as  to  be 
worth  the  keeping  in  all  future  time.  It  will  then 
have  been  proved  that  among  freemen  there  can  be 
no  successful  appeal  from  the  ballot  to  the  bullet,  and 
that  they  who  take  such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose  their 
case  and  pay  the  cost.  And  then  there  will  be  some 
black  men  who  can  remember  that,  with  silent  tongue, 
and  clenched  teeth,  and  steady  eye,  and  well-poised 
bayonet,  they  have  helped  mankind  on  to  this  great 
consummation ;  while  I  fear  that  there  will  be  some 
white  men  unable  to  forget  that,  with  malignant  heart 
and  deceitful  speech,  they  have  striven  to  hinder  it. 

Still,  let  us  not  be  over-sanguine  of  a  speedy  final 
triumph.     Let  us  be  quite  sober.     Let  us  diligently 
apply  the  means,  never  doubting  that  a  just  God,  in 
His  own  good  time,  will  give  us  the  rightful  result. 
Yours,  very  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

JAMES  C.  CONKUNG,  Esq. 


A  NATIONAL  FAST  DAY.  71 

VIII. 
PROCLAMATION  APPOINTING  A  NATIONAL  FAST  DAY. 

BY  THE   PRESIDENT   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES   OF 
AMERICA  : 

A  Proclamation. 

WHEREAS,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  de 
voutly  recognizing1  the  supreme  authority  and  just 
government  of  Almighty  God  in  all  the  affairs  of 
men  and  of  nations,  has  by  a  resolution  requested 
the  President  to  designate  and  set  apart  a  day  for 
national  prayer  and  humiliation. 

And  whereas,  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  as  well  as 
of  men  to  own  their  dependence  upon  the  overrul 
ing  power  of  God ;  to  confess  their  sins  and  trans 
gressions  in  humble  sorrow,  yet  with  assured  hope 
that  genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and  par 
don  ;  and  to  recognize  the  sublime  truth,  announced 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  proven  by  all  history, 
that  those  nations  only  are  blessed  whose  God  is  the 
Lord. 

And  insomuch  as  we  know  that  by  his  divine  law 
nations,  like  individuals,  are  subjected  to  punishments 
and  chastisements  in  this  world,  may  we  not  justly 
fear  that  the  awful  calamity  of  civil  war  which  now 
desolates  the  land  may  be  but  a  punishment  inflicted 
upon  us  for  our  presumptuous  sins,  to  the  needful 
end  of  our  national  reformation  as  a  whole  people  ? 
\Ve  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  choicest  boun 
ties  of  Heaven.  We  have  been  preserved,  these  many 


72  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

years,  in  peace  and  prosperity.  We  have  grown  in 
numbers,  wealth,  and  power  as  no  other  nation  has 
ever  grown  ;  but  we  have  forgotten  God.  We  have 
'brgotten  the  gracious  hand  which  preserved  us  in 
2)eace,  and  multiplied  and  enriched  and  strengthened 
us,  and  we  have  vainly  imagined,  in  the  deceitfulness 
of  our  hearts,  that  all  these  blessings  were  produced 
by  some  superior  wisdom  and  virtue  of  our  own. 
Intoxicated  with  unbroken  success,  we  have  become 
too  self-sufficient  to  feel  the  necessity  of  redeeming 
and  preserving  grace,  too  proud  to  pray  to  the  God 
that  made  us : 

It  behooves  us,  then,  to  humble  ourselves  before 
the  offended  Power,  to  confess  our  national  sins,  and 
to  pray  for  clemency  and  forgiveness  : 

Now,  therefore,  in  compliance  with  the  request,  and 
fully  concurring  in  the  views  of  the  Senate,  I  do  by 
this  my  proclamation  designate  and  set  apart  Thurs 
day,  the  30th  day  of  April,  1863,  as  a  day  of  national 
humiliation,  fasting,  and  prayer.  And  I  do  hereby 
request  all  the  people  to  abstain  on  that  day  from 
their  ordinary  secular  pursuits,  and  to  unite  at  their 
several  places  of  public  worship  and  their  respective 
homes  in  keeping  the  day  holy  to  the  Lord,  and  de 
voted  to  the  humble  discharge  of  the  religious  duties 
proper  to  that  solemn  occasion.  All  this  being  done 
in  sincerity  and  truth,  let  us  then  rest  humbly  in  the 
hope  authorized  by  the  divine  teachings,  that  the 
united  cry  of  the  nation  will  be  heard  on  high,  and 
answered  with  blessings  no  less  than  the  pardon  of 
our  national  sins,  and  the  restoration  of  our  now 
divided  and  suffering  country  to  its  former  happy 
condition  of  unity  and  peace. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand, 


NEWS  FROM  GETTYSBURG.  73 

and   caused   the   seal    of    the   United    States   to   be 
affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  thir 
tieth  day  of  March,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
[L.  S.]       one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
and    of   the    independence    of    the    United 
States  the  eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  PRESIDENT  : 
WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 


IX. 

ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  NEWS  FROM  GETTYSBURG. 

WASHINGTON,  July  4,  10.30  A.  M. 

THE  President  announces  to  the  country  that  news 
from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  up  to  10  p.  M.  of 
the  3d,  is  such  as  to  cover  that  army  with  the  highest 
honor,  to  promise  a  great  success  to  the  cause  of  the 
Union,  and  to  claim  the  condolence  of  all  for  the 
many  gallant  fallen  ;  and  that  for  this  he  especially 
desires  that  on  this  day  He  whose  will,  not  ours, 
should  ever  be  done  be  everywhere  remembered  and 
reverenced  with  profoundest  gratitude. 

A.  LINCOLN. 


74  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


X. 

LETTER  TO  A.  G.  HODGES. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON, 
April  4,  1864. 

A.  G.  HODGES,  ESQ.,  Frankfort,  Kentucky. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  You  ask  me  to  put  in  writing  the 
substance  of  what  I  verbally  said  the  other  day  in 
your  presence,  to  Governor  Bramlette  and  Senator 
Dixon.  It  was  about  as  follows :  — 

"  I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.  If  slavery  is  not 
wrong,  nothing  is  wrong.  I  cannot  remember  when 
I  did  not  so  think  and  feel,  and  yet  I  have  never 
understood  that  the  presidency  conferred  upon  me  an 
unrestricted  right  to  act  officially  upon  this  judgment 
and  feeling.  It  was  in  the  oath  I  took  that  I  would, 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could  not 
take  the  office  without  taking  the  oath.  Nor  was  it 
my  view  that  I  might  take  an  oath  to  get  power,  and 
break  the  oath  in  using  the  power.  I  understood, 
too,  that  in  ordinary  civil  administration  this  oath 
even  forbade  me  to  practically  indulge  my  primary 
abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  question  of  slavery. 
I  had  publicly  declared  this  many  times  and  in  many 
ways,  and  I  aver  that,  to  this  day,  I  have  done  no 
official  act  in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment 
and  feeling  on  slavery.  I  did  understand,  however, 
that  my  oath  to  preserve  the  Constitution  to  the  best 
of  my  ability  imposed  upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving, 
by  every  indispensable  means,  that  government,  that 


LETTER   TO  A.  G.  HODGES.  7,5 

nation,  of  which  that  Constitution  was  the  organic 
law.  Was  it  possible  to  lose  the  nation  and  yet  pre 
serve  the  Constitution  ?  By  general  law  life  and 
limb  must  be  protected,  yet  often  a  limb  must  be 
amputated  to  save  a  life  ;  but  a  life  is  never  wisely 
given  to  save  a  limb.  I  felt  that  measures  otherwise 
unconstitutional  might  become  lawful  by  becoming 
indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution 
through  the  preservation  of  the  nation.  Right  or 
wrong,  I  assumed  this  ground,  and  now  avow  it.  I 
could  not  feel  that,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had 
even  tried  to  preserve  the  Constitution,  if,  to  save 
slavery  or  any  minor  matter,  I  should  permit  the 
wreck  of  government,  country,  and  Constitution  all 
together.  When,  early  in  the  war,  General  Fremont 
attempted  military  emancipation,  I  forbade  it,  because 
I  did  not  then  think  it  an  indispensable  necessity. 
When,  a  little  later,  General  Cameron,  then  Secre 
tary  of  War,  suggested  the  arming  of  the  blacks,  I 
objected,  because  I  did  not  yet  think  it  an  indispen 
sable  necessity.  When,  still  later,  General  Hunter 
attempted  military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it, 
because  I  did  not  yet  think  the  indispensable  neces 
sity  had  come.  When,  in  March  and  May  and  July, 
1862,  I  made  earnest  and  successive  appeals  to  the 
border  States  to  favor  compensated  emancipation,  I 
believed  the  indispensable  necessity  for  military  eman 
cipation  and  arming  the  blacks  would  come  unless 
averted  by  that  measure.  They  declined  the  propo 
sition,  and  I  was,  in  my  best  judgment,  driven  to  the 
alternative  of  either  surrendering  the  Union,  and 
with  it  the  Constitution,  or  of  laying  strong  hand  upon 
the  colored  element.  I  chose  the  latter.  In  choosing 
it  I  hoped  for  greater  gain  than  loss ;  but  of  this  I 


76  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

was  not  entirely  confident.  More  than  a  year  of  trial 
now  shows  no  loss  by  it  in  our  foreign  relations,  none 
in  our  home  popular  sentiment,  none  in  our  white 
military  force,  —  no  loss  by  it  anyhow  or  anywhere. 
On  the  contrary,  it  shows  a  gain  of  quite  a  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers. 
These  are  palpable  facts,  about  which,  as  facts,  there 
can  be  no  cavilling.  We  have  the  men  ;  and  we  could 
not  have  had  them  without  the  measure. 

"  And  now  let  any  Union  man  who  complains  of 
the  measure  test  himself  by  writing  down  in  one  line 
that  he  is  for  subduing  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms  ; 
and  in  the  next,  that  he  is  for  taking  these  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  men  from  the  Union  side,  and 
placing  them  where  they  would  be  but  for  the  mea 
sure  he  condemns.  If  he  cannot  face  his  case  so 
stated,  it  is  only  because  he  cannot  face  the  truth." 

I  add  a  word  which  was  not  in  the  verbal  conver 
sation.  In  telling  this  tale  I  attempt  no  compliment 
to  my  own  sagacity.  I  claim  not  to  have  controlled 
events,  but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  controlled 
me.  Now,  at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the 
nation's  condition  is  not  what  either  party,  or  any 
man,  devised  or  expected.  God  alone  can  claim  it. 
Whither  it  is  tending  seems  plain.  If  God  now  wills 
the  removal  of  a  great  wrong,  and  wills  also  that  we 
of  the  North,  as  well  as  you  of  the  South,  shall  pay 
fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial  his 
tory  will  find  therein  new  cause  to  attest  and  revere 
the  justice  and  goodness  of  God. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 


THE  SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.        77 


XI. 


THE  SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

Lincoln  was  reflected  President,  and  delivered  his  second 
inaugural  on  the  4th  of  March,  1865,  only  a  few  weeks  before 
ho  was  assassinated.  The  words  in  the  closing  paragraph  were, 
so  to  speak,  his  legacy  to  his  countrymen.  By  a  natural  im 
pulse,  they  were  hung  out  on  banners  and  on  the  signs  of  mourn 
ing  which  throughout  the  Union  marked  the  grief  of  the  people 
at  the  loss  of  their  great  leader. 

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN  :  At  this  second  appearing 
to  take  the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there  is 
less  occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was 
at  the  first.  Then,  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail, 
of  a  course  to  be  pursued,  seemed  fitting  and  proper. 
Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which 
public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth 
on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which 
still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies 
of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented. 
The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly 
depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself  5 
and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encour 
aging  to  all.  With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no  pre 
diction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years 
ago,  all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impend 
ing  civil  war.  All  dreaded  it ;  all  sought  to  avert  it. 
While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from 
this  place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union 


f8  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

without  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking 
to  destroy  it  without  war  —  seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  par 
ties  deprecated  war  ;  but  one  of  them  would  make  war 
rather  than  let  the  nation  survive ;  and  the  other 
would  accept  war  rather  than  let  it  perish.  And  the 
war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
localized  in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  con 
stituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew 
that  this  interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war. 
To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest 
was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the 
Union,  even  by  war ;  while  the  Government  claimed 
no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  en 
largement  of  it.  Neither  party  expected  for  the  war 
the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which  it  has  already  at 
tained.  Neither  anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  con 
flict  might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself 
should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and 
a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read 
the  same  Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God ;  and  each 
invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's 
assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of 
other  men's  faces  :  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be 
not  judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  an 
swered  ;  that  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully.  The 
Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  "  Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offenses !  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offenses  come  ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  of 
fense  cometh."  If  we  shall  suppose  American  Slav 
ery  is  one  of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  providence  of 


THE  SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.         79 

God,  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having  continued 
through  His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  remove, 
and  that  He  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terri 
ble  war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense 
came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from 
those  divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living 
God  always  ascribe  to  Him  ?  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fer 
vently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war 
may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it 
continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be 
sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the 
lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must 
be  said,  "  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in  ;  to  bind 
up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  or 
phan  ;  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just 
and  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all 
nations. 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


XII. 

SPEECH  IN  INDEPENDENCE  HALL. 

On  Washington's  birthday,  1861,  when  Lincoln  was  on  his  wa^ 
to  Washington  to  be  inaugurated  as  the  great  successor  to  the 
great  first  President,  it  was  arranged  that  he  should  raise  a  new 
flag  at  Independence  Hall  in  Philadelphia.  He  did  so,  and  on 
the  occasion  made  the  following  speech.  It  was  in  this  hall  that 
his  body  lay  when  it  was  on  its  way  to  Springfield  after  his  as» 
sassination. 

I  AM  filled  with  deep  emotion  at  finding  myself 
standing  in  this  place,  where  were  collected  together 
the  wisdom,  the  patriotism,  the  devotion  to  principle 
from  which  sprang  the  institutions  under  which  we 
live.  You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  in  my 
hands  is  the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  our  distracted 
country.  I  can  say  in  return,  sirs,  that  all  the  politi 
cal  sentiments  I  entertain  have  been  drawn,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  draw  them,  from  the  sentiments 
which  originated  in  and  were  given  to  the  world  from 
this  halL  I  have  never  had  a  feeling,  politically,  that 
did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have  often  pondered 
over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men  who 
assembled  here  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Declara 
tion.  I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  en 
dured  by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who 
achieved  that  independence.  I  have  often  inquired  of 
myself  what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept 
this  Confederacy  so  long  together.  It  was  not  the 


SPEECH  IN  INDEPENDENCE  HALL.         $1 

mere  matter  of  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the 
motherland,  but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  which  gave  liberty,  not  alone  to  the 
people  of  this  country,  but  hope  to  all  the  world,  for 
all  future  time.  It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that 
in  due  time  the  weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoul 
ders  of  all  men  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal 
chance.  This  is  the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  De 
claration  of  Independence.  Now,  my  friends,  can  this 
country  be  saved  on  that  basis  ?  If  it  can,  I  will  con 
sider  myself  one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I 
can  help  to  save  it.  If  it  cannot  be  saved  upon  that 
principle,  it  will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this  country 
cannot  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I 
was  about  to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on 
this  spot  than  surrender  it.  Now,  in  my  view  of  the 
present  aspect  of  affairs,  there  is  no  need  of  bloodshed 
and  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I  am  not  in 
favor  of  such  a  course  ;  and  I  may  say  in  advance 
that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  Government.  The  Government  will  not  use 
force,  unless  force  is  used  against  it. 

My  friends,  this  is  wholly  an  unprepared  speech. 
I  did  not  expect  to  be  called  on  to  say  a  word  when  I 
came  here.  I  supposed  it  was  merely  to  do  something 
towards  raising  a  flag  —  I  may,  therefore,  have  said 
something  indiscreet.  [Cries  of  "  No,  No."]  But  I 
have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by, 
and,  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  die  by. 


82  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

XIII. 

LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS. 

This  address,  given  in  Washington  April  11, 1865,  is  especially 
interesting  as  outlining  the  President's  policy  of  reconstruction. 

WE  meet  tins  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  glad 
ness  of  heart.  The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and 
Richmond,  and  the  surrender  of  the  principal  insur 
gent  army,  give  hope  of  a  righteous  and  speedy  peace, 
whose  joyous  expression  cannot  be  restrained.  In  the 
midst  of  this,  however,  He  from  whom  all  blessings 
flow  must  not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national 
thanksgiving  is  being  prepared,  and  will  be  duly  pro 
mulgated.  Nor  must  those  whose  harder  part  give  us 
the  cause  of  rejoicing  be  overlooked.  Their  honors 
must  not  be  parcelled  out  with  others.  I  myself  was 
near  the  front,  and  had  the  high  pleasure  of  trans 
mitting  much  of  the  good  news  to  you ;  but  no  part 
of  the  honor  for  plan  or  execution  is  mine.  To  Gen 
eral  Grant,  his  skilful  officers  and  brave  men,  all 
belongs.  The  gallant  navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not 
in  reach  to  take  active  part. 

By  these  recent  successes  the  reinauguration  of  the 
national  authority,  —  reconstruction,  —  which  has  had 
a  large  share  of  thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed 
much  more  closely  upon  our  attention.  It  is  fraught 
with  great  difficulty.  Unlike  a  case  of  war  between 
independent  nations,  there  is  no  authorized  organ  for 
us  to  treat  with,  —  no  one  man  has  authority  to  give 
up  the  rebellion  for  any  other  man.  We  simply  must 


LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS.  83 

begin  vvitli  and  mould  from  disorganized  and  discord 
ant  elements.  Nor  is  it  a  small  additional  embarrass 
ment  that  we,  the  loyal  people,  differ  among  ourselves 
as  to  the  mode,  manner,  and  measure  of  reconstruc 
tion.  As  a  general  rule,  I  abstain  from  reading  the 
reports  of  attacks  upon  myself,  wishing  not  to  be  pro 
voked  by  that  to  which  I  cannot  properly  offer  an 
answer.  In  spite  of  this  precaution,  however,  it  comes 
to  my  knowledge  that  I  am  much  censured  for  some 
supposed  agency  in  setting  up  and  seeking  to  sustain 
the  new  State  government  of  Louisiana. 

In  this  I  have  done  just  so  much  as,  and  no  more 
than,  the  public  knows.  In  the  annual  message  of 
December,  1863,  and  in  the  accompanying  proclama 
tion,  I  presented  a  plan  of  reconstruction,  as  the 
phrase  goes,  which  I  promised,  if  adopted  by  any 
State,  should  be  acceptable  to  and  sustained  by  the 
executive  government  of  the  nation.  I  distinctly 
stated  that  this  was  not  the  only  plan  which  might 
possibly  be  acceptable,  and  I  also  distinctly  protested 
that  the  executive  claimed  no  right  to  say  when  or 
whether  members  should  be  admitted  to  seats  in  Con 
gress  from  such  States.  This  plan  was  in  advance 
submitted  to  the  then  Cabinet,  and  distinctly  ap 
proved  by  every  member  of  it.  One  of  them  sug 
gested  that  I  should  then  and  in  that  connection  * 
apply  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  to  the  there 
tofore  excepted  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana ;  •, 
that  I  should  drop  the  suggestion  about  apprenticeship 
for  freed  people,  and  that  I  should  omit  the  protest 
against  my  own  power  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  ' 
members  to  Congress.  But  even  he  approved  every 
part  and  parcel  of  the  plan  which  has  since  been 
employed  or  touched  by  the  action  of  Louisiana, 


84  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  new  constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  eman« 
cipation  for  the  whole  State,  practically  applies  the 
proclamation  to  the  part  previously  excepted.  It 
does  not  adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  it 
is  silent,  as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise,  about  the 
admission  of  members  to  Congress.  So  that,  as  it 
applies  to  Louisiana,  every  member  of  the  Cabinet 
fully  approved  the  plan.  The  message  went  to  Con 
gress,  and  I  received  many  commendations  of  the 
plan,  written  and  verbal,  and  not  a  single  objection 
to  it  from  any  professed  emancipationist  came  to  my 
knowledge  until  after  the  news  reached  Washington 
that  the  people  of  Louisiana  had  begun  to  move  in 
accordance  with  it.  From  about  July,  1862,  I  had 
corresponded  with  different  persons  supposed  to  be 
interested  in  seeking  a  reconstruction  of  a  State  gov 
ernment  for  Louisiana.  When  the  message  of  1863, 
with  the  plan  before  mentioned,  reached  New  Orleans, 
General  Banks  wrote  me  that  he  was  confident  that 
the  people,  with  his  military  cooperation,  would  recon 
struct  substantially  on  that  plan.  I  wrote  to  him  and 
some  of  them  to  try  it.  They  tried  it,  and  the  result 
is  known.  Such  has  been  my  only  agency  in  getting 
up  the  Louisiana  government. 

As  to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before 
stated.  But  as  bad  promises  are  better  broken  than 
kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a  bad  promise,  and  break  it 
whenever  I  shall  be  convinced  that  keeping  it  is  ad 
verse  to  the  public  interest ;  but  I  have  not  yet  been 
so  convinced.  I  have  been  shown  a  letter  on  this 
subject,  supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in  which  the 
writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not  seemed 
to  be  definitely  fixed  on  the  question  whether  the  se 
ceded  States,  so  called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out  of  it. 


LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS.  85 

It  would  perhaps  add  astonishment  to  his  regret  were 
he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found  professed  Union 
men  endeavoring  to  make  that  question,  I  have  pur 
posely  forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it.  As 
appears  to  me,  that  question  has  not  been,  nor  yet 
is,  a  practically  material  one,  and  that  any  discussion 
of  it,  while  it  thus  remains  practically  immaterial, 
could  have  no  effect  other  than  the  mischievous  one 
of  dividing  our  friends.  As  yet,  whatever  it  may 
hereafter  become,  that  question  is  bad  as  the  basis 
of  a  controversy,  and  good  for  nothing  at  all  —  a 
merely  pernicious  abstraction. 

We  all  agree  that  the  seceded  States,  so  called,  are 
out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union, 
and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  government,  civil  and 
military,  in  regard  to  those  States  is  to  again  get 
them  into  that  proper  practical  relation.  I  believe 
that  it  is  not  only  possible,  but  in  fact  easier,  to  do 
this  without  deciding  or  even  considering  whether 
these  States  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than 
with  it.  Finding  themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would 
be  utterly  immaterial  whether  they  had  ever  been 
abroad.  Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary 
to  restoring  the  proper  practical  relations  between 
these  States  and  the  Union,  and  each  forever  after 
innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether  in  doing 
the  acts  he  brought  the  States  from  without  into  the 
Union,  or  only  gave  them  proper  assistance,  they 
never  having  been  out  of  it.  The  amount  of  constitu 
ency,  so  to  speak,  on  which  the  new  Louisiana  gov 
ernment  rests  would  be  more  satisfactory  to  all  if  it 
contained  50,000,  or  30,000,  or  even  20,000,  instead  of 
only  about  12,000,  as  it  does.  It  is  also  unsatisfac 
tory  to  some  that  the  elective  franchise  is  not  given 


86  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

to  the  colored  man.  I  would  myself  prefer  that  it 
were  now  conferred  on  the  very  intelligent,  and  on 
those  who  serve  our  cause  as  soldiers. 

Still,  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana 
government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable. 
The  question  is,  will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and 
help  to  improve  it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse  it  ?  Can 
Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  relations 
with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding 
her  new  State  government?  Some  twelve  thousand 
voters  in  the  heretofore  slave  State  of  Louisiana  have 
sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the 
rightful  political  power  of  the  State,  held  elections, 
organized  a  State  government,  adopted  a  free-State 
constitution,  giving  the  benefit  of  public  schools  equally 
to  black  and  white,  and  empowering  the  legislature  to 
confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  colored  man. 
Their  legislature  has  already  voted  to  ratify  the  con 
stitutional  amendment  recently  passed  by  Congress, 
abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  These 
12,000  persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union 
and  to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  State  —  committed  to 
the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things,  the  nation 
wants  —  and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition  and  its 
assistance  to  make  good  their  committal. 

Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost 
to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  effect,  say 
to  the  white  man  :  You  are  worthless  or  worse ;  we 
will  neither  help  you,  nor  be  helped  by  you.  To 
the  blacks  we  say  :  This  cup  of  liberty  which  these, 
your  old  masters,  hold  to  your  lips  we  will  dash  from 
you,  and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the 
spilled  and  scattered  contents  in  some  vague  and  un 
defined  when,  where,  and  how.  If  this  course,  dis- 


LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS.  87 

coin-aging  and  paralyzing  both  white  and  black,  has 
any  tendency  to  bring  Louisiana  into  proper  practical 
relations  with  the  Union,  I  have  so  far  been  unable 
to  perceive  it.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  recognize  and 
sustain  the  new  government  of  Louisiana,  the  con 
verse  of  all  this  is  made  true.  We  encourage  the 
hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  the  12,000  to  adhere  to 
their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and  proselyte  foi  it,  and 
fight  for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a 
complete  success.  The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all 
united  for  him,  is  inspired  with  vigilance,  and  energy, 
and  daring,  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the 
elective  franchise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  sav 
ing  the  already  advanced  steps  toward  it  than  by  run 
ning  backward  over  them  ?  Concede  that  the  new 

O 

government  of  Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  be 
as  the  e££  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the 

OO 

fowl  by  hatching  the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 

Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana,  we  also  reject  one 
vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  na 
tional  Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition,  it  has 
been  argued  that  no  more  than  three  fourths  of  those 
States  which  have  not  attempted  secession  are  neces 
sary  to  validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I  do  not  com 
mit  myself  against  this  further  than  to  say  that  such 
a  ratification  would  be  questionable,  and  sure  to  be 
persistently  questioned,  while  a  ratification  by  three 
fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and 
unquestionable.  1  repeat  the  question  :  Can  Louisi 
ana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new 
State  government?  What  has  been  said  of  Louisi 
ana  will  apply  generally  to  other  States.  And  yet  so 
great  peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State,  and  such  im- 


88  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN*. 

portant  and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State, 
and  withal  so  new  and  unprecedented  is  the  whole 
case,  that  no  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely 
be  prescribed  as  to  details  and  collaterals.  Such  ex 
clusive  and  inflexible  plan  would  surely  become  a  new 
entanglement.  Important  principles  may  and  must 
be  inflexible.  In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase 
goes,  it  may  be  my  duty  to  make  some  new  announce 
ment  to  the  people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering, 
and  shall  not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied  that  action  will 
be  proper. 


O  CAPTAIN!   MY  CAPTAIN! 

BY  WALT  WHITMAN. 


O  CAPTAIN  I  my  Captain !  our  fearful  trip  is  done ; 
The  ship  has  weathered  every  wrack,  the  prize  we  sought  is  won  5 
The  port  is  near,  the  bells  I  hear,  the  people  all  exulting, 
While  follow  eyes  the  steady  keel,  the  vessel  grim  and  daring : 
But  0  heart!  heart!  heart! 

O  the  bleeding  drops  of  red, 

Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 


0  Captain  !  my  Captain !  rise  up  and  hear  the  bells ; 

Rise  up  —  for  you  the  flag  is  flung,  for  you  the  bugle  trills ; 

For  you  bouquets  and  ribboned  wreaths,  for  you  the  shores  a-crowd« 

ing; 

For  you  they  call,  the  swaying  mass,  their  eager  faces  turning; 
Here  Captain  !  dear  father  ! 

This  arm  beneath  your  head ; 

It  is  some  dream  that  on  the  deck 
You  've  fallen  cold  and  dead. 

in. 

My  Captain  does  not  answer,  his  lips  are  pale  and  still ; 
My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm,  he  has  no  pulse  nor  will ; 
The  ship  is  anchored  safe  and  sound,  its  voyage  closed  and  dona  J 
From  fearful  trip  the  victor  ship  comes  in  with  object  won ; 
Exult,  0  shores!  and  ring,  O  bells! 
But  I,  with  mournful  tread, 
Walk  the  deck  my  Captain  lies 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY. 

MATERIALS   FOR   SKETCH    OF   LINCOLN'S   LIFE. 

THE  fullest  Life  of  Lincoln,  and  the  one  which  makes 
the  strongest  claim  for  authority,  is  that  written  by  the 
President's  private  secretaries,  John  George  Nicolay 
and  John  Hay,  who  have  also  edited  a  full  collection 
of  Lincoln's  speeches,  state  papers,  letters,  and  mis 
cellaneous  writings.  Both  these  works  are  issued  by 
The  Century  Co.,  New  York. 

Special  importance  attaches  to  those  lives  and 
sketches  which  have  been  written  by  men  who  per 
sonally  knew  Lincoln,  and  who,  writing  often  in  close 
proximity  to  the  events  narrated,  were  likely  to  speak 
with  vividness  if  not  always  with  impartiality.  The 
incompleted  Life  by  Ward  H.  Lamon,  who  was  long 
associated  with  Lincoln,  covers  the  period  up  to  the 
date  of  his  inauguration  in  1861.  It  is,  however,  now 
out  of  print.  Abraham  Lincoln:  The  True  Story  of 
a  Great  Life,  by  W.  H.  Herndon,  who  was  Lincoln's 
law  partner  and  long  intimate  with  him,  is  published 
by  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  and  is  of  great 
value.  A  Life  by  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  deals  with  the 
personality  of  the  subject,  and  has  a  popular  aim. 
Six  Months  at  the  Wliite  House,  or  The  Inner  Life 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  is  an  exceedingly  interesting 
volume  of  memoranda  made  by  Frank  B.  Carpenter 
when  engaged  on  a  painting  of  Lincoln  and  his  Cab 
inet.  Reminiscences  by  distinguished  men  who  were 
contemporaries  and  in  many  cases  near  associates  of 
Lincoln  were  prepared  at  the  instance  of  Allen  Thorn- 
dike  Rice,  editor  of  the  North  American  Review,  and 
afterward  collected  by  him  into  a  volume  of  656  pages, 
and  published  in  1886. 


92  LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY. 

The  Life  by  Henry  J.  Raymond,  then  the  editor  of 
the  New  York  Times,  published  in  New  York  in  1864, 
was  in  intention  a  campaign  life,  but  it  is  especially 
valuable  since  it  allows  Lincoln  to  be  his  own  bio 
grapher  by  means  of  speeches,  letters,  messages,  and 
the  like.  The  Life  by  Isaac  N.  Arnold  (A.  C.  McClurg 
&  Co.,  Chicago)  is  chiefly  devoted  to  the  executive 
and  legislative  doings  of  Lincoln's  administration.  A 
campaign  life  was  published  by  Thayer  &  Eldridge, 
Boston,  1860.  Among  later  works,  mention  should 
be  made  of  the  lives  by  John  T.  Morse,  Jr.,  in  The 
American  Statesmen  series  (Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Co.),  and  Noah  Brooks  in  Heroes  of  the  Nations  (G. 
P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York)  ;  Abraham  Lincoln : 
an  Essay,  by  Carl  Schurz  (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.)  ; 
.President  Lincoln  and  his  Administration,  by  L.  E. 
Chitteiiden  (Harper  &  Bros.,  New  York)  ;  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  Men  of  War  Times,  by  A.  K.  McClure ; 
Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Norman  Hapgood 
(Macmillan)  ;  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Ida 
Tarbell  (McClure);  and  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men,  by 
Alonzo  Rothschild  (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.).  Other 
memoirs,  mostly  written  for  political  purposes,  are 
those  by  Joseph  H.  Barrett,  A.  A.  Abbott,  David  N. 
Bartlett,  Linus  P.  Brockett,  Phrebe  Ann  Hanaford, 
John  C.  Power. 

Several  popular  lives  for  young  people  have  been 
written,  among  them  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Pioneer 
Boy,  by  W.  M.  Thayer ;  The  Forest  Boy,  by  Z.  A. 
Mudge  ;  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Backwoods  Boy,  by 
Horatio  Alger,  Jr.  ;  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Charles 
Carleton  Coffin;  The  True  Story  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coin,  the  American,  by  E.  S.  Brooks ;  and  Abraham 
Lincoln,  by  W.  O.  Stoddard. 


LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY.  93 

After  Lincoln's  death  there  appeared  numberless 
eulogies,  addresses,  sermons,  poems,  and  magazine  ar 
ticles  concerning  his  life,  character,  and  public  ser 
vices.  A  zealous  bibliographer  and  antiquarian,  Mr. 
Charles  Henry  Hart,  collected  a  list  of  these  under  the 
title  Bibliographia  Lincolniana  ;  an  Account  of  the, 
Publications  occasioned  by  the  Death  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Sixteenth  President  of  the  United  States  ; 
ivith  Notes  and  an  Introduction.  It  was  published  by 
Joel  Munsell,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  1870,  and  contains  a 
valuable  biographical  introduction.  Among  preachers 
and  public  men  who  delivered  addresses  afterward 
printed  were  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  James  Freeman 
Clarke,  Richard  Salter  Storrs,  Phillips  Brooks,  Octa- 
vius  Brooks  Frothingham,  George  Bancroft,  James 
Abram  Garfield,  Alexander  H.  Bullock,  Richard 
Stockton  Field. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  delivered  a  commemorative 
address  at  funeral  services  held  in  Concord,  April  19, 
1865,  which  is  contained  in  the  eleventh  volume  of  his 
works,  Riverside  Edition.  James  Russell  Lowell, 
besides  the  paper  given  in  this  book,  introduced  a 
striking  portrait  of  Lincoln  in  the  lines  beginning, 

"  Such  was  he  our  Martyr-Chief," 

in  his  Commemoration  Ode.  Hawthorne  has  an  in 
teresting  paragraph  in  his  article  Chiefly  about  War 
Matters,  contributed  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  July, 
1862,  and  reprinted  in  volume  xii.  of  the  Riverside 
Edition  of  his  works.  Bryant  wrote  a  noble  threnody, 
Dr.  Holmes  a  memorial  hymn,  Stoddard  a  stately  ode, 
Stedman  a  sonnet  as  also  a  poem  on  the  cast  of  Lin 
coln's  hand,  and  Whittier  some  strong  verses  on  "  The 
Emancipation  Group  "  in  Boston.  Most  of  these  will 
be  found  in  Riverside  Literature  Series,  No.  133. 


94  LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY. 

Afc  investigation  into  the  Lincoln  genealogy  was 
made  by  Samuel  Shackford,  and  published  in  the  New 
England  Historic  Genealogical  Register,  Boston, 
1887.  There  are  in  the  Boston  Public  Library  more 
than  two  thousand  copies  of  American  and  English 
newspapers  containing  accounts  of  the  assassination 
with  editorial  comments.  Full  accounts  of  the  trial  of 
the  conspirators  were  published  by  Peterson  &  Bros., 
Philadelphia,  1865,  and  by  Barclay  &  Co.,  Philadel 
phia,  1865.  Benjamin  Pitman's  account  was  pub 
lished  by  Moore,  Wilstach,  Keys  &  Co.,  Cincinnati, 
1865.  The  obsequies  in  New  York  were  described  by 

D.  T.  Valentine  in  a  book  of  254  pages,  published  by 

E.  Jones  &  Co.,  New  York,  1866.     For  lists  of  works 
concerning  Lincoln,  besides  the  bibliography  by  Hart, 
one  may  consult  the  Boston  Public  Library  Catalogue, 
and  Monthly  Reference  Lists  of  Providence  Public 
Library,  vol.  i.  p.  21  (1881). 

Portraits  of  Lincoln  serve  as  frontispieces  to  most 
of  the  volumes  devoted  to  him,  and  there  are  several 
which  can  be  had  separately.  The  most  considerable 
are  the  large  steel  engraving  by  Marshall,  published 
by  Bradley  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  and  large  photogra 
vures  published  by  A.  W.  Elson  &  Co.  of  Boston 
and  W.  H.  Gilbo  of  New  York.  Gustav  Kruell  has 
made  two  striking  engravings  on  wood.  The  most 
valuable  photographs  from  life  are  those  published  by 
George  B.  Ayres  of  Philadelphia  and  M.  P.  Rice 
of  Washington,  which  were  taken  in  1860  and  1864 
respectively.  There  is  a  good  plaster  bust  to  be  ob 
tained  of  P.  P.  Caproni  &  Bro.,  Boston.  Photographs 
of  the  Statue  of  Lincoln  by  St.  Gaudens  in  Chicago 
can  also  be  procured. 


PKOGRAMMES. 


[These  programmes  are  merely  in  the  way  of  suggestion. 
Teachers  may  find  it  more  convenient  to  combine  numbers 
from  different  programmes  into  a  new  one.] 

No.  I. 

1.  Essay :  Describing  the  scenes  which  take  place  at  the 
inauguration  of  the  President. 

2.  Recitation  :  Lincoln's  second  Inaugural. 

3.  Song  :  America. 

4.  A  list  of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  with  the 
age  of  each  upon  inauguration. 

5.  Anecdotes :  Descriptive  of  Lincoln  in  connection  with 
his  cabinet. 

6.  Reading:   That  portion  of  Lowell's  Commemoration 
Ode  descriptive  of  Lincoln. 

No.  II. 

1.  Description  of  the  interior  of  Independence  Hall,  Phil 
adelphia. 

2.  Account  of  the   signing  of  the  Declaration   of  Inde* 
pendence. 

3.  Declamation  :  Lincoln's  speech  in  Independence  HalL 

4.  Recitation :  The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic. 

5.  Comparison  of  Washington  and  Lincoln. 

6.  Opinions  by  distinguished  men  of  Lincoln's  character 
and  power  given  in  brief  by  several  pupils. 

7.  Recitation :   0  Captain,  my  Captain. 


96  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


No.  III. 

1.  Essay  :   Descriptive  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. 

2.  Declamation  :  Lincoln's  speech  at  Gettysburg. 

3.  Estimates  of  the  speech  by  eminent  men. 

4.  Anecdotes  about  Lincoln,  chosen  by  six  pupils. 

5.  Account  of  the  eagle,  Old  Abe. 

6.  Heading :  Selections  from  Emerson's  address. 

No.  IV. 

1.  Historical  essay  on  the  rise  of  the  conflict  with  slavery. 

2.  Reading  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 

3.  Recitation  of  Whittier's  The  Jubilee  Singers. 

4.  Reading  of  Lincoln's  letter  to  Horace  Greeley. 

5.  Essay  on   the    constitutional    amendment    abolishing 
slavery,  giving  a  history  of  its  passage. 

6.  Recitation  of  Bryant's  Threnody. 

NO.  y. 

THE    MAN. 

1.  Essay :   Lincoln's   Parentage  and  Childhood,   drawn 
from  Chapter  I.  of  Holland's  Life  of  Lincoln. 

2.  Essay :  Lincoln's  Early  Life  and  Marriage,  selected 
from  Ward  H.  Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln. 

3.  Essay :  Lincoln's  Manhood,  as  drawn  from  Lamon's 
Life,  to  his  election  to  the  Presidency. 

4.  Reading :  From  Lincoln's  Speech  on  accepting  nom 
ination   to    the    U.    S.    Senate,  Springfield,   111.,   June   17, 
1858.     Found  in  Raymond's  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  52  et  seq. 

5.  Essay  :  Descriptive  of  Lincoln's  Famous  Debate  with 
S.  A.  Douglas,  drawn  from  Chapter  II.  Raymond's  Life 
of  Lincoln. 

6.  Reading  :  Selections  from  Lincoln's  Speech  in  Cooper 
Institute,    New    York,     February   27,    1860.      In    Ray* 
mond's  Life,  p-  85. 


PROGRAMMES.  W 

7.  Reading :  Selections  from  R.  W-  Emerson's  Lecture 
on  Abraham  Lincoln. 

8.  Reading :   Estimate  of  Lincoln's  Character,  Chapter 
XIII.  Charles  G.  Leland's  Life  of  Lincoln,  in  the  New 
Plutarch  Series. 

No.  VI. 

THE    PRESIDENT. 

1.  Reading :  From  first  Inaugural,  March  4,  1861. 

2.  Essay :  A  Sketch  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Presidential  Life, 
drawn  from  any  standard  Life. 

3.  Reading:    Descriptive     of    Lincoln's    Tastes,    from 
Six  Months  at  the  White  House,  Section  XVI. 

4.  Reading :  Herndon's   Analysis   of  Lincoln's  Charac 
ter.     Six  Months  at  the  White  House,  Section  LXXIX. 

5.  Essay:    Lincoln's    Home   Life    as   drawn   from  Six 
Months  at  the  White  House. 

6.  Reading:  Anecdotes  about  Lincoln,     The  last  forty 
pages   of  Raymond's  Life  are  devoted  to  Anecdotes   and 
Reminiscences. 

7.  Declamation :  Exordium  to  Edward  Everett's  Address 
at  Gettysburg. 

8.  Recitation :  Selections  from  Bayard  Taylor's  Gettys 
burg  Ode. 

9.  Declamation :  Lincoln's  Address  at  Gettysburg. 

10.  Reading :  Selections  from  Lincoln's  second  Inaugu 
ral. 

No.  VII. 

THE   EMANCIPATOR. 

1.  An  Essay  descriptive  of  the  progress  of  the  War  to  the 
Autumn  of  1862. 

2.  Reading  from  Holland's   Life  of  Lincoln,  descriptive 
of   the    President's    preparation  and    presentation    of    the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  reduced  from  pp.  390-395. 

3.  Reading  :  The  Proclamation  itself. 


98  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

4.  Reading :  From  Whittier,  The  Proclamation. 

5.  Singing:  America. 

6.  Readings  selected  from  R.  W.  Emerson's  The  Eman* 
cipation  Proclamation. 

I.  Reading:  The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  W.    S. 
Robinson,  "  Warrington,"  from  Pen  Portraits. 

8.  Reading :  The  Death  of  Slavery,  Bryant. 

9.  Reading :  The    Proclamation,    as    culled    from    the 
first  part  of   Chapter  XII.   of   Frederick   Douglass'  Life 
and  Times. 

10.  Reading :  Laus  Deo,  John  G.  Whittier. 

II.  Singing :  Hymn,  after  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion,  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes. 

No.    VIII. 

THE     MARTYR. 

1.  Essay :    Descriptive  of  the  Assassination. 

2.  Recitation  :  Death  of  Lincoln,  Bryant. 

3.  Reading :  From  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Noah  Brooks,  Harper's  Monthly,  vol.  xxxi.,  p.  222,  July, 
1865. 

4.  Recitation :  Abraham  Lincoln,  Alice  Gary. 

5.  Reading  :     Easy    Chair,    Harper's     Monthly,    Vol. 
xxxi.  p.  126,  June,  1865. 

6.  Declamation:  From   Abraham  Lincoln;  an  Hora- 
tian  Ode,  R.  H.  Stoddard. 

7.  Reading:  Mr.  Lowell's  Essay. 

8.  Recitation :  Our  Good  President,  Phrebe  Cary. 

9.  Recitation:    Second  Review    of   the    Grand  Army, 
Bret  Harte. 

10.  Reading :  From  Commemoration  Ode,  J.  R.  Lowell. 

11.  Song :  For  the   Services   in   Memory   of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    LIST    OF    EVENTS    IN 
THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


Born  in  a  log-cabin  near  Hodgensville,  now  Larue  County, 

Kentucky February  12,  1809 

His  father  moves  with  his  family  into  the  wilderness  near  Gen 
try  ville,  Indiana       .         .         .         .         .         •         «         •         1816 
His  mother  dies,  at  the  age  of  35  .    1818 

His  father's  second  marriage •         1819 

Walks  nine  miles  a  day,  going  to  and  returning  from  school     .     1826 
Makes  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  at  work  on  a  flat-boat       1828 
Drives  in  an  ox-cart  with  his  father  and  stepmother  to  a  clear 
ing  on  the  Sangamon  River,  near  Decatur,  Illinois      .         .     1829 
Splits  rails,  to  surround  the  clearing  with  a  fence  .         .    ;.    *         1829 
Makes  another  flat-boat  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  back,  on  which 
trip  he  first  sees  negroes  shackled  together  in  chains,  and 
forms  his  opinions  concerning  slavery           .         .         .    May,  1831 
Begins  work  in  a  store  at  New  Salem,  Illinois         .         .  August,  1831 
Enlists  in  the  Black  Hawk  War ;  elected  a  captain  of  volun 
teers    1832 

Announces  himself  a  Whig  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  and 

is  defeated 1832 

Storekeeper,  Postmaster,  and  Surveyor 1833 

Elected  to  the  Illinois  Legislature 1834 

Reflected  to  the  Legislature 1835  to  1842 

Studies  law  at  Springfield 1837 

Is  a  Presidential  elector  on  the  Whig  national  ticket         .         .     1840 

Marries  Mary  Todd November  4,  1842 

Canvasses  Illinois  for  Henry  Clay 1844 

Elected  to  Congress «        1846 

Supports  General  Taylor  for  President 1848 

Engages  in  law  practice  ......        1849-1854 

Debates  with  Douglas  at  Peoria  and  Springfield  .  .  .  1855 
Aids  in  organizing  the  Republican  party  .  .  .  1855-1856 
Joint  debates  in  Illinois  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  .  •  •  1858 


100  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Makes  political  speeches  in  Ohio  .  .  •  •  .  •  1859 
Visits  New  York,  and  speaks  at  Cooper  Union  .  February,  1860 
Attends  Republican  State  Convention  at  Decatur ;  declared  to 

be  the  choice  of  Illinois  for  the  Presidency         .         .    May,  1860 
Nominated  at  Chicago  as  the  Republican  candidate  for  Presi 
dent         May  16,  1860 

Elected  President  over  J.  C.  Breckenridge,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 

and  John  Bell       .        .         .         .         .         .  November,  1860 

Inaugurated  President March  4,  1861 

Issues  first  order  for  troops  to  put  down  the  Rebellion,  April  15,  1861 

Urges  McCleUan  to  advance April,  1862 

Appeals  for  the  support  of  border  States  to  the  Uniom  cause, 

March  to  July,  1862 

Calls  for  300,000  more  troops July,  1862 

Issues  Emancipation  Proclamation  .  .  .  January  1,  1863 
Thanks  Grant  for  capture  of  Vicksburg  ....  July,  1863 
His  address  at  Gettysburg  ....  November  19,  1863 

Calls  for  500,000  volunteers July,  1864 

Renominated  and  reflected  President  .  .  .  .  .  1864 
Thanks  Sherman  for  capture  of  Atlanta  .  .  .  September,  1864 

His  second  inauguration March  4,  1865 

Assassinated April  14,  1865 


literature  £erie£—  conti 


Si.  Hawthorne's  Twice-Told  Tales.    /'«/»/,  ..n>  ;  linen,  .00. 

K5.  Eliot's  Silas  Marner.    I'a/>,  •/-,.;  ;io  •,  limn.  .40. 

M.   Dana's  Two  Years  Before  tlio  Mast.     Limn,  .00. 

Vi.   Hughes's  Tom  Brown's  School  Days.     7'<i>..  /  ,  .4.1  ;  /i;<r«,  .50. 

U.   Scott's  Ivanhoe.     l'<i/"  r.  ..'MI  ;  I  in,  n,  .iio. 

,s7.   Defoe's  Robinson  Crusoe.     Lute*,  .(K). 

H.S.   Stowe's  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.     Limn,  .tin. 

:>\v  -ift's  Gulliver's  Voyage  to  Lilliput.     Paper.  .!.'•. 
'.KI.  Swift's  Gulliver's  Voyage  to  Brobdiugnag.    rafter,  .l,r>.    NOB.  89,  IK),  one  vol. 

;'i;«  /I.  .40. 

!»1.  Hawthorne's  House  of  the  Seven  Gables.     /'<»/•<•/-,  ..10  ;  ////«•«,  .00. 

if.'.  Burroughs's  A  Bunch  of  Herbs,  etc.     /'<///.  r,  .1.x 

<*!.  Shakespeare's  As  You  Like  It.     Paper,.  U\  //;«//,  .2.1. 

!H.  Milton's  Paradise  Lost.     Hooks  1  III.     J'a/><  r,  .1.1. 

UV.fti.  Cooper's  Last  of  the  Mohicans.    One  vol.,  linen,  .(X). 

'.i1.  i.   Tennyson's  Coining1  of  Arthur,  etc.     Paper,  .15. 

Km.  Burke's  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  the  Colonies.     Paper,  .15)  linen,  .'25. 
Ml.  Pope's  Iliad.    Books  1,  VI,  XXII,  XXIV.    Paper.  .Ui  Hue*.  J&. 
lirj.   Mr.:»aulay'B  Johnson  and  Goldsmith.    Paper,  .15;  ////<«,  .2.1. 
in.'!.  Macaulay's  Essay  on  John  Milton.     /'.</«  /•,  .10  ;  ////.  //,  .2.1. 
104.  Macaulay's  Life  and  Writings  of  Addison.     Pap,  /  ,  .!:>  ;  /jW/i,  .2.1.     NOB.   Kti, 

llM,  one  vol.,  HH>H.  .1". 

10.1.  Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns.     Paper.  .15)  /(«»//,  .2.1. 
KH;.  Shakespeare's  Macbeth.    Paper,  .10  1  IUMM,  J& 

Ki7,  Ins.   Grimms'  Tales.    In  two  parts,  each,  paper,  .1."..    NOB.  107,  11  is,  one  vol.,  Kite*,  .40. 
lini.   Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress.     Paper,  .,'io  ;  limn,AO. 
llu.   De  Quincey's  Flight  of  a  Tartar  Tribe.     Paper.  .15)  /<«»•«,  .2.1. 
111.  Tennyson's  Princess.     Paper,  .SO.     .!/.<«.  i«  A'«-(/'<  '.<  Stu</<  ills'  .s'«  TICS,  fo  Teachers, 

11.'.  Virgil's  JEneid.    Books  I-II1.    Translated  by  CI;AN<  n.     /'«/«-/•,  .l.'i. 
11X  Poems  from  Emerson.     /'<»/-,/•.  .1.1.    Nos.  11':;,  -li',  one  vol..  //'«e«,  .40. 
114.  Peabody's  Old  Greek  Folk  Stories.    Paper,  .!&  //»«/,  ..'.1. 
11.1.  Bi-owning's  Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin,  etc.    /'«/«•/  •,  .1.1  ;  //><•  «,  .L'.l. 
Hi;.  Shakespeare's  Hamlet.     /'«/„  r.  .:u»  ;//;/«-«,  .40. 

117,  ll.s.  Stories  from  the  Arabian  Nights.    In  two  parts,  each,  /«(/»),  .1.1.    Nos.  117, 
lls,  one  vol.,  IIIK-II,  .4ii 


ll'.i.  Poe's  The  Raven.  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher,  etc.     /'<//,</•,  .1.1  ;  linen,  .2.1. 

ll'.i,  IL'O,  one  vol.,  linen,  A 
Layno  011  Foot 
I1.".'.  Speech  by  Daniel  Webster  in  Reply  to  Hayne.    J'ajjer,  .1.1.  '  Nos.  121,  122,  one 


12".  Poe's  The  Gold-Bug,  etc.     1'apvr,  .1.1.    Nos.  llii,  120,  one  vol.,  linen,  .40. 
121.  Speech  by  Robert  Young  Hayne  on  Foote's  Resolution.     l'<t/i>'r,  .1,1. 

~ 


1.,  linen,  A 

12.'!.  Lowell's  Democracy,  etc.    Paper,  .15. 

124.  Aldrich's  Baby  Bell,  etc.     J'aper,  .15. 

12.1.  Drydeii's  Palamon  and  Arcite.     I'apcr.  .1.1 :  linen,  .2.1. 

120.  Ru'skin's  King  of  the  Golden  River,  etc.     Paper,  .15;  linen,  .25. 

127.  Keats's  Ode  on  a  Grecian  Urn,  etc.     Paper,  .1.1. 

128.  Byron's  Prisoner  of  Chillon,  etc.     Pu/,er,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

l±i.  Plato's  Judgment  of  Socrates.    Translated  by  P.  E.  MOKK.    J'aper,  .15. 

130.  Emerson's  The  Superlative,  and  Other  Essays,  etc.     Paper,  .15. 

131.  Emerson's  Nature,  and  Compensation.     Paper,  .15. 

132.  Arnold's  Sohrab  and  Rustum,  etc.     Paper,  .1.1  ;  linen.  .2.1. 

l.'tt.  Schurz's  Abraham  Lincoln.     Paper,  .15.    NOB.  1:;::.  ::2.  one  vol.,  linen,  .40 

l:J4.  Scott's  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.    Paper,  .30.    Ah,>,  in  RoljVx  Students'  Series,  tc. 

135.    Chaucer's  Prologue.      Paper,  .\~>  ;  IIIK-/I,  .2.1. 

130.  Chaucer's    The  Knight's  Tale,  and   The  Nun's  Priest's  Tale.      Paper,  .\i*. 

Nos.  135, 130,  one  vol.,  linen.  .4". 

l',7.   Bryant's  Iliad.    Books  I,  VI,  XXII,  and  XXI V.     l'n,,>  r,  .1.1. 
I.".N.   Hawthorne's  The  Custom  House,  and  Mrin  Street.     Paper,  .15. 
13H.  Howells's  Doorstep  Acquaintance,  and  Other  Sketches.    Paper,  .15. 

140.  Thackeray's  Henry  Esmond.     Linen.  .7.1. 

141.  Three  Outdoor  Papers,  by  THOMAS  WKNTWOKTH  HIUOINSON.     Paper,  .15. 

142.  Buskin's  Sesame  and  Lilies.    I'aper,  .1.1 ;  lint-n.  .2.1. 

H:!.  Plutarch's  Life  of  Alexander  the  Great.    North's  Translation.    Papei,.]' 
144.  Scudder's  The  Book  of  Legends.    1'api  /-.  .1,1 :  linen.  .2.1. 
14,1.  Hawthorne's  The  Gentle  Boy,  etc.    Pup,,-,  .1.1 ;  ///» /*,  .2.1. 
140.   Longfellow's  Giles  Corey.     Paper,  .1.1. 
147.  Pope's  Rape  of  the  Lock,  etc.    Paper,  .15 ;  Zmeit,  £5. 
14*.  Hawthorne's  Marble  Faun.    Linen,  .00. 
141).  Shakespeare's  Twelfth  Night.     Paper,  .15  ;  /w»,  .25. 

Mo.  Ouida's  Dog  of  Flanders,  and  The  Nurnberg  Stove.     /'<»//<  r,  .;,. ;  Inn  n,  .2,1. 
Ml.  Ewing's  Jackanapes,  and  The  Brownies.     /'«/-</,  .1,1 :  linen,  .2.1. 
M2.  Martineau's  The  Peasant  and  the  Prince.     Paper,  .30  ;  Hum,  .40. 

i.     Po 


157.  The  Song  of  Roland.    Translnteil  hylsvuKi.  HI-TI.KK.     /'«,,er.  .W  ;  linen,  .40- 

Ms    Malory's  Book  of  Merlin  and  Book  of  Sir  Balin.     Paltrr,  .15  ;  linen,  .2.1. 

l.V.i.   Beowulf.    Translated  liv  C.  G.  CHILD.     /'<//-./.  .1.1  :  /i//. /i,  .2.1. 

KiO.  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene.    Book  I.     /'«/«•;•.  .:m  ;  /i«« •«,  .4". 

181.  Dickens's  Tale  of  Two  Cities.     Paper,  Mi  Ii,i,n,.W. 

1»>2.  Prose  and  Poetry  of  Cardinal  Newman.     Selections.    Paper,  M;  linen,   40. 

K!.   Shakespeare's  Henry  V.    J'<i/i>'i:  .1.1 ;  ///„„,  .2,1. 

1*4.   De  Quincey's  Joan  of  Arc,  and  The  English  Mail-Coach.     Paper,  .15  ;  linen,  .25. 

105.  Scott's  Quentin  Durward.    Paper,  .50  ;  line  n,  .00. 


BOOK  IS  OTE  ON  THE 
STAMPED  BELO^ 


I 


l::s'  Sholle 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


' 


8iun'53VH 

'953  LU 
2ireb'57Kl 


135 


19Mar'59JT 


JAiJ 


.  -.il? 


.IBR- 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


* 


